Mathieu van der Poel comfortably won the Cyclocross World Cup round in Antwerp on Sunday to take the bragging rights amongst his great cyclocross rivals Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock.
In the trio’s first head-to-head of the season, Van der Poel took his second successive World Cup victory after returning to the scene last week in Hulst.
Jumbo Visma’s Van Aert, racing cyclocross for the first time this season, had a strong start but was unable to bring Van der Poel back once the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider took the lead at the beginning of the second lap.
After seven laps, Van der Poel was the victor by 23 seconds, with Van Aert completing an impressive return to ‘cross action to finish second. Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen Bingoal) rounded off the podium.
Despite a courageous ride to overcome a disappointing beginning that left him with a mountain to climb, Pidcock will be disappointed with his eighth place. A day earlier, at Superprestige Boom, world champion Pidcock had won by 10 seconds from Lars van der Haar with Van der Poel crashing and finishing down in 13th.
Antwerp, however, saw a reversal of fortunes, with Van der Poel looking imperious across the sand and grass, bunny-hopping expertly and running fast when required. His form, in what was just his third outing of the season, already looks ominous for the ensuing two months.
Asked if he made a mistake during his win, Van der Poel laughed: “Not that I can recall so that’s a good thing. I felt good, I was able to get a good gap, maintain it and I am pretty happy with today.”
Van Aert described his podium as “unexpected”, adding: “When Mathieu was attacking he was way too fast, so I understood that I should focus on second place.
“I feel way better than I expected to before [the race]. My pace during the race was quite steady which was a good thing and from this we will try build up, [and] get the accelerations in. It’s a super starting point for me.”
Van der Poel, however, knows that he has to continue to make improvements when he returns from a two-week training camp in Spain. “I need to be better in the future as Wout will be getting better,” the four-time world champion said. “There will be a few really nice races in the busy [Christmas] period.”
In his season debut, the Belgian champion Van Aert had a terrific opening, racing to the very front from the grid start with Van der Poel a few places back.
The same could not be said for Pidcock, however, who endured a nightmare opening lap and…