In the latest of a series of tense duels between Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) and Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice) it was the Dutch champion who came out the winner in Ruddervoorde, Belgium during the third round of the Superprestige cyclo-cross series on Sunday.
Van der Poel finished alone after dominating the greasy, fast and technical course, half a minute ahead of world champion Van Aert, who suffered a late mechanical problem after fighting with van der Poel for much of the race. Laurens Sweeck (ERA-Circus) was third at nearly a minute, making it once again a podium filled by young riders that represent the present and the future of men’s cyclo-cross.
It was the third Superprestige win in a row for van der Poel and so he strengthened his lead in the Superprestige series where he holds the maximum of 45 points, three more than Van Aert.
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“I didn’t have a super day,” Van der Poel surprisingly said shortly after capturing his commanding victory. “This pleases me a lot. I felt much better than in the Koppenbergcross although I made too many mistakes. The course suited me perfectly.”
Van der Poel was always upfront after a slow start, riding with Van Aert and Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux-Napoleon Games) after the opening lap, with Kevin Pauwels (Marlux-Napoleon Games) and Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) snapping at their heels. Halfway the second lap Van der Poel casually took off and threw away his hand gloves at the pit area and then opened up the gas in an impressive display of riding.
In no time Van der Poel was alone up front, with Van Aert trailing by a handful of seconds. Van der Haar, Pauwels and Michael Vanthourenhout were already more than ten seconds down on him. The gap between Van der Poel and Van Aert remained about the same during the third lap but the rest of the pack quickly realized they were racing for third place as they trailed by half a minute. Sweeck and Toon Aerts (Telenet-Fidea) bridged up to Pauwels, Vanthourenhout and Van der Haar to form a chase group but the race for victory was up front.
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