Mathieu van der Poel’s World Cup win at Antwerp may have been close to perfection, but his warm up included at least one moment of near disaster.
The world champion was caught on video by a fan as he did a massive skid towards the barriers in Antwerp. These particular barriers were in a very high speed section of the course, and very very solidly secured in the ground. That combination requires some serious commitment from the riders if they’re going to try hop them both.
Van der Poel appears to pull the plug at the last possible moment. After a high speed slide, the world champ still taps the barrier with enough momentum to get his back wheel off the ground. Disaster was avoided, though, and the Dutch phenom loops back to take another run at the barrier.
In the race itself, the barriers didn’t appear to pose any problem. Van der Poel hops them at race pace in the group before leaping away from the lead riders to take the win.
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