One week ahead of the Bieles 2017 UCI World championships, the win at the final Telenet UCI World Cup round of the season was for Lars van der Haar (Telenet Fidea Lions). The 25-year-old Dutch rider completed a long solo and won ahead of teammates Tom Meeusen and Corné van Kessel.
Last week, world champion Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Charles) secured the overall win in the World Cup and he opted out of the World Cup final. His arch rival, Dutch champion Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon), had an off day in the race organised by his father Adrie.
For Van der Haar, the win in Hoogerheide came as quite a surprise, knowing he was sidelined by two injuries this season. "Very unexpected," Van der Haar said in the post-race flash interview with Sporza. "It was special. The last lap I couldn't stop smiling."
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The fast, frozen course in chilly Hoogerheide provided for a very different race compared to last year's muddy edition that was won by Mathieu van der Poel. This time around, it was very hard to create gaps. In the absence of Wout Van Aert, Van der Poel took a good start and he seemed in total control of affairs during the opening lap.
In the long line behind Van der Poel, there was a problem for Spanish champion Ismail Esteban Aguando which caused a crash for Pan-American champion Stephen Hyde (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) and blocked the path of Van der Haar. The latter ended up riding outside the top 20 and a good result seemed impossible.
The race dynamic turned around when Van der Poel sat up and allowed other riders to take the initiative. Van der Haar started to believe in his chances and rode the fastest second lap of the pace, moving back into the top 10. During the fourth of ten laps, there were still 26 riders riding within ten seconds of each other.
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