Eleven months after capturing the world title in Heusden-Zolder, Belgian Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice) returned to the same racing circuit, capturing a tremendous solo victory in the seventh round of the Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup and strengthening his massive overall lead.
"It’s really weird," Van Aert said in the flash interview following his win. "Zolder never used to be my favourite course until I turned world champion here. Now I win for the second time in a year. Clearly it does something with a person; it’s something special."
Van Aert relegated his rivals to a race for second, finishing more than a minute ahead of surprising runner-up Laurens Sweeck (ERA Real Estate-Circus). Kevin Pauwels (Marlux-Napoleon Games) once again finished in third place. Dutch champion Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) didn’t have a perfect start and ran into mechanical problems, eventually ruining his run for third place and finishing 14th.
ADVERTISEMENT
The race brings an end to the year-long unbeaten streak in the World Cup for Van der Poel. The win for Van Aert made an end to a series of second place behind his arch rival.
“It pleased me a lot to win again and a bit of show at the finish was allowed. Showing off and then claiming it was by accident isn’t my style,” Van Aert said in the flash interview.
When crossing the finish line Van Aert looked back and indicated there was nobody in sight. The move was a jab at Van der Poel. Three days earlier the latter might have hurt Van Aert’s feelings by taking time for a spectacular jump shortly after distancing the world champion late in the Superprestige round in Diegem.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://ift.tt/2i0P8CJ
No comments:
Post a Comment