One week ahead of the Heusden-Zolder 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships the reigning world champion Mathieu van der Poel (BKCP-Corendon) showed that he’s not planning to renounce his title. The 21-year-old Dutch rider captured his fourth consecutive World Cup victory at the season finale in Hoogerheide on Sunday afternoon, finishing nearly a minute ahead of his biggest rival Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice Continental Team).
“It was a very difficult race today, very tough. I’m happy because like some other riders I did a very intensive training week. I’m satisfied with the recovery I did until now,” Van der Poel said in the post-race flash interview.
He didn’t like to be referred to as the only favourite for next week’s world championships race. “The only? I wouldn’t say that. This is something entirely different [compared to] next week. Next week is a course that suits me very well. I’m really happy because I had a hard training week. Next week I want to take some rest and then I want to go for the super-compensation to prolong my title. It’s good to go home this way. I’m a pleased man. I prefer to head home like this than after being distanced.”
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The mudfest at the race organized by Mathieu’s father Adrie van der Poel in Hoogerheide seemed to favour Van Aert over Van der Poel. Also strong veterans like Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink) and Klaas Vantornout (Marlux-Napoleon Games) were expected to excel on this terrain. The outcome was somewhat different. For less than half a lap Van der Poel was biding his time behind a fast started Gianni Vermeersch (Marlux-Napoleon Games) and then he surged away. Van Aert seemed to struggle to find grip in Hoogerheide early on.
By the end of the opening lap he tried to set-up the chase on the world champion with Laurens Sweeck (ERA-Murprotec) and Kevin Pauwels (Marlux-Napoleon Games), trailing him by eight seconds. During the second of eight long laps Van der Poel kept extending his lead, even though Van Aert rode away from Pauwels and Sweeck. Briefly a big duel seemed to be coming up but Van der Poel quickly took away all hope for Van Aert.
Every lap he added about eight seconds to his advantage.
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