World champion Mathieu van der Poel (BKCP-Corendon) is back to his winning ways, taking a thrilling fourth World Cup round of the season on a dry Sunday afternoon in Namur, Belgium. With a late attack, Van der Poel beat World Cup leader Wout Van Aert (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) and last year’s Namur winner Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games).
Van der Poel is still on the way back to top form after undergoing knee surgery in October. When crossing the line his hands showed surprise, opening his eyes wide. After the finish line he fell on the ground, clearly having gone to the limit to get the victory. TV images showed an emotional Van der Poel when he freshened up for the post-race flash interview in which he explained that these were the duels he trained for.
“I’m enormously happy. This is one of my best victories, especially after my injury. This is what excites people, winning a duel against these two top riders. This is why I do this, why I started doing cyclo-cross,” Van der Poel said on Telenet Play Sports.
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Van Aert strengthens his lead in the World Cup standings and now comfortably leads all three major cyclo-cross series. Despite being beaten. the Belgian 21-year-old was somewhat pleased with how things unfolded.
“It was close. In the last lap it was about timing your attack right. He did that slightly better than me. I went too early on that last climb and felt lactic acid filling up my legs. When he attacked I didn’t have a reply. It was a good battle,” Van Aert said. “In the World Cup it was close before this round but I did a good job today.”
Van Aert now holds 290 points, 29 more than Sven Nys (Crelan-AA-Drink), who had a tough day and finished eighth. Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) is third with 255 points.
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