Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) felt a “bit sore” but returned from a crash the previous day to take a second cyclocross victory of the season in Antwerpen.
The 27-year-old showed no visible signs of suffering after damaging his knee during a heavy fall less than 24 hours earlier riding clear of his rivals, including Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), to win by 23 seconds in the World Cup event.
In just his third cyclocross race this year Van der Poel was too strong for his competitors, attacking on the second lap and extending his margin until the final lap to take a faultless victory.
Remarkably the Dutch rider’s victory came just a day after he suffered a knee and shoulder injury after crashing while leading the previous day’s Superprestige event at Boom.
Despite eventually finishing over three minutes behind in Boom, Van der Poel said he felt strong and carried that form into Antwerpen.
“I felt pretty okay after yesterday,” said Van der Poel after following up his World Cup win at Hulst last weekend with a second victory.
“I was a bit sore but it didn’t bother me too much during the race. There were no mistakes that I recall, which is a good thing.”
“I was able to get a good gap and maintain it so I’m pretty happy with today.”
“It’s only my third race, yesterday I crashed after a lap, but I was really strong as well.”
“Antwerpen is a race that I really like and I think today I found it technically pretty okay.”
Van der Poel and Van Aert are both targeting the World Cyclocross Championships which take place in Hoogerheide on February 5.
The Alpecin–Deceuninck rider will be bidding for his fifth elite rainbow jersey title with the added importance of the event being on home soil.
Psychological blows
Van der Poel landed a psychological blow on rival Van Aert by riding away from him on the second lap in Antwerpen.
However, with the World Cup round being Van Aert’s first competitive race both riders are expected to improve significantly before they challenge each other in several battles over the Christmas period.
“It still needs to be better in the future because Wout will also get better,” Van der Poel added.
“Wout was immediately fairly strong for his first ‘cross and he will also improve towards Christmas. I think there’s going to be a few really nice races in a busy period.”
Despite showing his dominant form in the cyclocross field Van der Poel is now heading…
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