January 28, 2007 (Hooglede-Gits, Belgium) — The elite men’s event lived up to expectations as a difficult race with the course being a deciding factor. The hometown favourite Belgian riders started off strong, but a crash at the end of the first lap tangled world cup leader Sven Nys (Bel) and Bart Wellens (Bel).

Richard Groenendaal (Ned) hammered on the front for several laps, eventually gapping a chase group of Jonathan Page (USA) and Enrico Franzoi (Ita). Shortly behind them was another group with the closest Belgian being Erwin Vervecken.

Groenendaal’s crash on the fifth lap brought Page and Franzoi up to him, but after a bike change he couldn’t keep the pace. With two laps to go, as the chase group led by Vervecken was up to five seconds, Page attacked solo but a half lap later Vervecken had caught him.

Canada’s Mike Garrigan was lapped, but managed to sit in with Page and Vervecken for some time to see how the big pros race. The last two laps showed both Page and Vervecken attacking. While Vervecken seemed stronger, Page seemed to pull ahead through the technical sections.

Page took advantage of Vervecken’s troubles to once again put a 5-second gap on the Belgian and attacked again once Vervecken had caught him. Determined Canadian Champion, Greg Reain, stayed on the lead lap until the last half of the final lap when he got lapped by the fierce leaders.

Page led for much of the final lap, but Vervecken bided his time and attacked decisively on one of the last climbs of the race, winning over Page by about 20 metres. Franzoi managed a podium spot for Italy.

30,000 fans mobbed “Domenico Savio” park in Hooglede-Gits to see Vervecken defend his title against the USA’s Page who almost stole the show putting in an historic performance to finish in second place. Page’s ride capped fabulous performances by the Americans at the 2007 Cyclocross Worlds with Katie Comption scoring silver in the elite women’s race earlier today, and Daniel Summerhill also winning silver in yesterday’s junior men’s event. With his silver Summerhill became the first U.S. athlete to medal at a UCI Cyclocross World Championships since 2000.

Prerace favourite Sven Nys finished 11th, after a series of crashes and mishaps, while Wellens recovered from the crash at the beginning of the race to finish 4th.

Results

1. Erwin Vervecken (Belgium) 1:05.35.5
2. Jonathan Page (USA) 0:02.7
3. Enrico Franzoi (Italy) 0:16.7
4. Bart Wellens (Belgium) 0:25.4
5. Kevin Pauwels (Belgium) 0:31.2
6. Richard Groenendaal (Netherlands) 0:34.3
7. Gerben De Knegt (Netherlands) 1:12.4
8. John Gadret (France) 1:26.2
9. Christian Heule (Switzerland) 1:35.4
10. Thijs Al (Netherlands) 1:40.7
11. Sven Nys (Belgium) 2:04.0
12. Sven Vanthourenhout (Belgium) 2:22.5
13. Marco Aurel Fontana (Italy) 2:46.8
14. Maarten Nijland (Netherlands) 2:57.7
15. Klaas Vantornout (Belgium) 2:57.8
16. David Derepas (France) 3:02.6
17. Jose Antoni Hermida Ramos (Spain) 3:04.7
18. Lukas Fluckiger (Switzerland) 3:25.4
19. Arnaud Labbe (France) 3:27.0
20. Marek Cichosz (Poland) 3:31.9
21. Simon Zahner (Switzerland) 3:43.6
22. Maros Kovac (Slovakia) 3:54.9
23. Ryan Trebon (USA) 3:59.2
24. Petr Dlask (Czech Republic) 4:05.8
25. Bart Aernouts (Belgium) 4:22.0
26. Alessandro Fontana (Italy) 4:34.7
27. Robert Glajza (Slovakia) 4:46.6
28. Rene Birkenfeld (Germany) 4:56.3
29. Steve Chainel (France) 5:42.3
30. Milan Barenyi (Slovakia) 5:49.7
31. Davide Frattini (Italy) 6:01.9
32. Joachim Parbo (Denmark) 6:16.2
33. Unai Yus Kerejeta (Spain) 6:33.2
34. Phillip Dixon (Great Britan) 6:39.8
35. Keiichi Tsujiura (Japan) 6:47.2
36. Marco Bianco (Italy) 6:51.8
37. Robert Jebb (Great Britan) 7:17.7
38. Gusty Bausch (Luxembourg) 7:29.0
39. Kashi Leuchs (New Zeland) 7:34.0
40. Wilant Van Gils (Netherlands) 7:41.7
41. Fernande Suarez (Spain) 7:58.3
42. Fredrik Ericsson (Sweden) 8:16.2
43. Eric Tonkin (USA) 8:25.0
44. Vaclav Metlicka (Slovakia) 8:36.9
45. Mariusz Gil (Poland) 9:06.7
46. Dariusz Gil (Poland) -1 lap
47. Andrzej Kaiser (Poland) -1 lap
48. Greg Reain (Canada) -1 lap
49. Oscar Vazquez Crespo (Spain) -1 lap
50. Peter Presslauer (Austria) -1 lap
51. Masanori Kosaka (Japan) -1 lap
52. Mike Garrigan (Canada) -1 lap
53. Atsushi Maruyama (Japan) -1 lap
54. Barry Wicks (USA) -1 lap
55. Jan Chrobak (Czech Republic) -1 lap
56. Thorsten Struch (Germany) -1 lap
57. Tristan Schouten (USA) -1 lap
DNF Davy Commeyne (Belgium)
DNF Kamil Ausbuher (Czech Republic)
DNF Radomir Simunek (Czech Republic)
DNF Camiel Van Den Bergh (Netherlands)
DNF Malte Urban (Germany)
DNF Masahiko Mifune (Japan)
DNF Mohamed Conway (Zimbabwe)
DNF Tshabalala Nqobizitha (Zimbabwe)
DNS Francis Mourey (France)