To prepare for the World Cup race in Koksijde on Sunday, which then was cancelled due to heavy storm, the riders of Beobank-Corendon and ERA-Circus took part in the fifth run of the Toi Toi Cup in Slany, Czech Republic on Thursday and in the Soudal Classics Race in Hasselt, Belgium on Saturday.

While Mathieu van der Poel was training in Spain, several other STEVENS Super Prestige riders of teams Beobank-Corendon and ERA-Circus delivered convincing performances with one win and multiple top ten placings.

The Thursday race taking place on the Czech Republic’s National Holiday was highly categorized as C1 and therefore featured a strong international field with many racers from Belgium and the Netherlands. David van der Poel of Beobank-Corendon and Czech rider Michael Boros of ERA-Circus were able to follow the fast Dann Soete to build a three-strong lead group for the first couple of laps. A little later they were joined by van der Poel’s team mate Wietse Bosmans.

Soete was the one to attack again and again during the race until Boros and Bosmans could not follow anymore. Only David van der Poel could keep up with the Belgian and even was able to catch up with him in the final lap - to eventually advance to the race lead. This position offered quite an advantage because the course featured very few opportunities to overtake an opponent.

With this maneuver David van der Poel secured his second win after the C1 race in Iowa City at the beginning of the season. Team mate Wietse Bosmans also reached the podium. Riding their STEVENS Super Prestige bikes Michael Boros and Diether Sweek of ERA-Circus came in fourth and fifth.

Second Victory For Sweeck At The Soudal-Classics in Hasselt
Laurens Sweeck also won his second race of the season. In Hasselt the ERA-Circus captain finished an enthralling race in front of Clément Venturini and Corne van Kessel.

It was clear from early on that one of these three would win since they steadily increased their lead throughout the race. From the third lap they rode together – until Laurens Sweek made the decisive attack in the penultimate lap.

Also riding a STEVENS Super Prestige Vincent Baestaens, Wietse Bosmans und Philipp Walsleben came in 4th, 5th and 7th respectively.