Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) captured a repeat victory on the spectacular course at the Namur citadel on Sunday. Once again, Van der Poel fought out a great duel with World champion Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice). The latter was strong but made too many mistakes in the first half of the race and luckless in the final lap. Kevin Pauwels (Marlux-Napoleon Games) was best of the rest, finishing at a short distance back in third place.
"I had the feeling that Wout was the strongest man today but I'm able to ride a good finale in such a cross race. Last year I also won in a fantastic way, this year again. I'm enormously happy," Van der Poel said in the post-race interview.
Ever since winning the World Cup round in Namur in 2015 – also after close duel with Van Aert – Van der Poel has been unbeaten when starting a World Cup race; winning seven consecutive World Cup rounds. Due to a knee injury he missed the first two World Cup events of this season. Van Aert won the first two rounds but then finished as runner-up in the three following races of the series. He remains leader in the World Cup standings, holding 370 points. Pauwels is second with 294 points. Van der Poel is seventh with 240 points.
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Sunday's race was a hard-earned win for the Dutchman. As Van der Poel said, Van Aert seemed to be the strongest on the climber's course in Namur but failed to turn that into an advatnage over Van der Poel. Straight from the start, Van der Poel featured at the head of the race while Van Aert kept bouncing off the front. The famous off-camber descent in Namur once again proved to be decisive. "During the recon it was dry and I thought to have found a line with good grip in the grass at the bottom of the section. During the race it was more difficult," Van Aert told Telenet Play Sports TV. The drizzle turned that line into a risky affair and Van Aert slipped away under the wired fencing. Van der Poel and Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea) profited although the latter flatted away from the front.
Van Aert had 14 seconds to make up after the opening lap. He closed down the gap impressive style and bridged up with Van der Poel just before the off-camber section only to struggle again. Van Aert started at the bottom and this time he went over the handlebars. "After the first time I thought that I was in the wrong rut. It was stupid to try it again a second time. It took a while before I had the right feeling in that section," Van Aert said.
Again, Van der Poel completed the lap with an advantage, this time of 16 seconds on Van Aert, Meeusen and Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux-Napoleon Games). Still, Van der Poel didn't seem as fresh, as eager as he tends to be. Van Aert needed more time to recover from his second crash but he showed grit and fought back. The off-camber section went better for him during the third lap. Behind, Stephen Hyde (Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com) crashed spectacularly on the tricky downhill, dropping out of the top 10.
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