January 26, 2008 (Treviso, Italy) – Niels Albert (Belgium) rode away from the field as he has done many times this season serving notice to those who thought he would choke when it came time for the most important race of the year. Albert had such a comfortable lead that he dismounted and walked his bike across the line over his head.

Second and third for much of the race were Lukas Kloucek (Cze) and Jonathan Lopez (Fra), but a group chasing behind caught the riders, and a new larger group emerged, including Kloucek and Lopez, along with Aurelien Duval (Fra), Christian Cominelli (Ita) and another French rider.

Before the stairs, Kloucek attacked, but two French riders passed him on the stairs, and one blocked while Duval attacked. The French team rode tactically, helping Duval score second easily, but then they mixed up the tactics for the sprint, with Lopez leading, expecting Bourgoin to go for the win. Instead Cominelli took advantage and grabbed the sprint for 3rd.

Brian Robinson had the strongest Canadian race riding without any bike changes – though he thought at one point he had a flat tire – the low pressures run by the team may have been confusing him. Robinson says he spent much of the race in the big ring along a fast course.

Canada’s Kyle Douglas was caught behind a crash at the start and had an up and down race. He chalks it up to gaining experience and had a great race other than a bad pit change.

Ian Manning (Can) crashed when he hit the foot of a crowd control barrier. He rode another 1/2 lap and pulled himself out saying the bike changes were so quick it felt like he like was stealing something. Manning hopes to come back again for a better finish. He’ll be riding on the road next year – and depending what team he rides with – will put in a full season of cyclocross next season hoping to come back to the CX Worlds again.

Canada’s Shawn Adamson thinks he wouldn’t have been lapped – he was 50 metres ahead of Albert coming around the last corner – but they pulled him.

Adamson stayed ahead of the crash at the start. He found the track quite slippery and found that it was motivating to be in a big group, pushing you to go 110%. He is happy with his season overall but came to Europe not very motivated. He was able to change things around and finished the season on a high. Next year Adamson is racing with Juventus again where he hopes to be a mentor for the younger riders on the team. He also gave thanks to the support staff’s help in getting it done.

Results

1. Niels Albert (Belgium) 51.11
2. Aurelien Duval (France) 0.38
3. Cristian Cominelli (Italy) 0.46
4. Jonathan Lopez (France) 0.47
5. Clément Bourgoin (France) 0.48
6. Lukas Kloucek (Czech Republic) 0.53
7. Fabio Ursi (Italy) 1.05
8. Guillaume Perrot (France) 1.31
9. Paul Voss (Germany) 1.39
10. Ramon Sinkeldam (Netherlands)
11. Thijs Van Amerongen (Netherlands)
12. Jempy Drucker (Luxembourg) 1.46
13. Julien Pion (France) 1.52
14. Pawel Szczepaniak (Poland) 1.55
15. Ondrej Bambula (Czech Republic)
16. Philipp Walsleben (Germany) 1.57
17. René Lang (Switzerland) 1.58
18. Tom Meeusen (Belgium)
19. Quentin Bertholet (Belgium) 2.01
20. Ian Field (Great Britain) 2.19
21. Matteo Trentin (Italy) 2.38
22. Mitchell Huenders (Netherlands) 2.42
23. Gorka Izaguirre Insausti (Spain) 2.45
24. Yannick Tiedt (Germany) 2.46
25. Wim Leemans (Belgium) 2.53
26. Alessandro Calderan (Italy) 2.58
27. Robert Gavenda (Slovakia) 3.17
28. Julien Taramarcaz (Switzerland) 3.18
29. Ivar Hartogs (Netherlands) 3.29
30. Marcel Meisen (Germany) 3.32
31. Sylwester Janiszewski (Poland) 3.39
32. David Lozano Riba (Spain) 3.4
33. Marco Ponta (Italy) 3.41
34. James Driscoll (United States Of America) 3.46
35. Joeri Adams (Belgium) 3.51
36. Yu Takenouchi (Japan) 3.52
37. Mattias Nilsson (Sweden) 3.54
38. Ole Quast (Germany) 3.56
39. Jiri Polnicky (Czech Republic) 4
40. Boy Van Poppel (Netherlands) 4.05
41. Martin Haring (Slovakia) 4.07
42. Brian Robinson (Canada) 4.18
43. Nicholas Weighall (United States Of America) 4.35
44. Chance Noble (United States Of America) 4.55
45. Carson Miller (United States Of America) 5.44
46. Nico Brüngger (Switzerland) 5.57
47. David Menger (Czech Republic) 6.06
48. Mark Thwaites (Great Britain) 6.18
49. Mauro Gonzalez Fontan (Spain) 7.15
50. Kyle Douglas (Canada) 7.27
51. Guillaume Dessibourg (Switzerland) 8.01

1 Lap Behind

52. Tomasz Repinski (Poland)
53. Yudai Izawa (Japan)
54. Shaun Adamson (Canada)
55. Lucian Logigan (Romania)
56. Yegor Dementyev (Ukraine)

DNF Anton Pustovit (Ukraine)
DNF Andriy Khripta (Ukraine)
DNF Kyva Roman (Ukraine)
DNF Ian Manning (Canada)
DNF Ihor Lisohor (Ukraine)
DNF Marius Petrache (Romania)