Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) won the fifth round of the Telenet UCI World Cup in Zeven on Saturday on a cold afternoon in northern Germany. Temperatures hovered around freezing point when the start was given and the 21-year-old needed some time to get going. He had a troubled opening lap but then crushed his rivals on the fast and twisting course. Van der Poel closed down an 18-second deficit on early leader Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice), who then was unable to keep up with the Dutch champion.
"I knew I had to close the gap as soon as possible because Wout was quite far. Once I bridged up I knew I was stronger because it's boosting the moral to have closed down such a gap. I quickly counter-attacked and straight away I had a big gap. It was fun," van der Poel told Telenet Play Sports TV.
Van der Poel rode just outside the top-10 when reaching the sand pit. The Dutchman claimed someone had ridden into his wheels, forcing him to lose some spokes. By the time he made it to the pit and switched bikes, he was 18 seconds down on leaders Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea) and Van Aert.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I didn't start well because I was surprised the lights turned green so fast," van der Poel said. "Then there was a bit of pushing and at the sand section I lost some spokes. I lost a lot of time to get a new bike."
Van Aert didn't waste time and went flat out, hoping to create an unbridgeable gap over van der Poel. It wasn't to be. From the third lap on van der Poel was out of traffic and time-trialed his way to the front. Halfway through the sixth of ten laps in Zeven, the Dutch champion bridged up with the World champion. Once the seventh lap got underway, van der Poel took the lead. After tackling a few fast corners on the course at the ‘Hinter der Ahe' forest, Van Aert was simply dropped by van der Poel. The latter went on to clock the fastest lap time of the race, 13 seconds faster than Van Aert in that lap.
Van Aert tried to remain upbeat after his defeat over van der Poel. "I managed to put him in trouble for half a race. Once he moved into the lead I realized after three corners what would happen. It was as if he rode on other tires. I was unable to follow him. He was the strongest," Van Aert said.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://ift.tt/2gKOl9c
No comments:
Post a Comment