Mathieu van der Poel dominated the sandy course in Antwerp to take a solo win at the fifth round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider easily claimed his second victory in his second World Cup of the season.
Though all eyes were on a potential duel between the world champion and his eternal rival Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the Belgian’s first cyclocross race of the season, it was clear after two laps that the Dutch rider was a notch above as he escaped solo, and the rest of the field was racing for the remaining podium places. In a mix for a podium spot, Van Aert suffered a flat tyre on the fifth lap and finished 7th, 51 seconds behind the winner.
“It was a good race, but I don’t think I was the best in the sand today. I made quite a few mistakes on the longer sections, but I felt already way better than last week,” said Van der Poel, who had a close battle with Thibau Nys before winning Namur World Cp last weekend.
“The legs just felt stronger. Of course, this is also a completely different course, but I felt already during the week, I was feeling a bit fresher than I was before Namur. So yeah, I’m happy to win again today.”
How it unfolded
The course for the season’s first cyclocross duel between Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert has been slightly revised compared to previous years. The start and finish straight has moved to Thonetlaan, a wider section that allows easier positioning before the riders hit the sand after about 400 metres. Elsewhere, the lap’s two long sandy sections, approximately 100 metres each, were repositioned,…
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