In his cross season debut Wout Van Aert won the second round of the Exact Cross, and on Saturday at the third round of the X2O Badkamers Trofee in Herenthals, Belgium, Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock faced their first cross race of 2023-2024. Van der Poel romped to victory, solo from the first lap, while Pidcock was runner-up. Van der Poel’s last cross race before Saturday was winning Worlds in February. Pidcock’s last race was coming fifth in the Benidorm World Cup, January 22.
The Situation Before Saturday
Thibau Nys and Eli Iserbyt might have won the first two rounds, but the man who was runner-up in both those races, Lars van der Haar, led the series by a mere 18 seconds over Iserbyt. Pauwels-Sauzen sent two riders to Herentals and van der Haar was the lone Baloise Trek Lion.
The world champion seized the hole shot on Lap 1. Pidcock had to fight his way through the string from the second row. Michael Vanthourenhout and Iserbyt were on van der Poel’s wheel and van der Haar sat Position 5. Van der Poel unclipped on a downhill but recovered and soon was solo. Van der Poel’s gap to Iserbyt was 13 seconds after one circuit. Pidcock was 19th.
The Iserbyt-van der Haar-Vanthourenhout chase was huge at the beginning of Lap 2. Van der Haar led up the steep run up. Laurens Sweeck made a miraculous save after he was bucked from his machine. Van der Haar, the closest competitor, was 29 seconds behind. Pidcock was up to 12th.
Van der Poel carried on his romp out front on Lap 3 of 8. His teammate Niels Vandeputte was part of the closest chase with van der Haar and Iserbyt, 44 seconds back. Pidcock was up to eighth.
Van der Poel crashed on Lap 4 but still had a big buffer. Britisher Cameron Mason bridged to the van der Haar chase.
Pidcock and Sweeck looked to latch on to the closest chase group on Lap 5. A surge from Vandeputte fragmented the pursuit gang, but it came back together. Fifty-two seconds seperated van der Haar, Pidcock et al from the man in the rainbow jersey. Vandeputte had a bike problem that put him behind with Sweeck. Van der Haar wanted to push on.
By the penultimate lap, van der Poel’s lead was almost a minute. The real contest was the podium race, as van der Haar, Iserbyt, Mason and Pidcock battled. Mason had to dab and started to lag….
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