Joran Wyseure became world cyclocross hopefuls champion on Saturday in Fayeteville, in the United States, where the podium is 100% Belgian. The 21-year-old from Flanders won the U23 race at the 2022 Worlds with a 13-second lead over Belgian champion Emiel Verstrynge and 33 over Thibau Nys, who won the sprint for 3rd place, allowing three Belgians on the three steps of the podium.
Beaten by Nys in the sprint for the bronze medal, Dutchman Mees Hendrikx and Briton Cameron Mason, 4th and 5th at 33 seconds, complete the top 5 of a race dominated by the Belgians, who all finished in the top 10 Niels Vandeputte finished 7th, Gerben Kuypers 9th and Jente Michiels 10th.
Joran Wyseure succeeds the Dutchman Pim Ronhaar, 8th Saturday, on the list of World Hopes, organized since 1996. He offers a 12th world title in U23 to Belgium, the first since Eli Iserbyt in 2018. Belgium is at the top of the medal table with 32 medals (12 gold, 14 silver and 6 bronze).
Earlier in the day, the Briton Zoë Backstedt, already European junior cyclocross champion and world champion on the road, won the world title in the plowed by winning the junior race ahead of the Dutch Leonie Bentveld and Lauren Molengraaf . The only Belgian entered, Fleur Moors took 21st place.
The Worlds will continue on Sunday in Arkansas with the junior races (6 p.m.), women’s hopes (8 p.m.) and men’s elites (9:30 p.m.).
