The mud bath at the fifth round of the Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Zeven, Germany proved to be perfect setting for world champion Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Charles) to prevent European champion Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) from claiming a fifth consecutive World Cup win on a cloudy Saturday afternoon.
Van Aert didn’t allow Van der Poel to bounce back from a dropped chain on the opening lap, and he finished 47 seconds ahead of his Dutch rival. Toon Aerts (Telenet Fidea Lions) finished just behind in third, like at last week’s World Cup round in Bogense, Denmark. Van Aert takes back 10 points from Van der Poel’s huge lead in the World Cup classification but still has a deficit of 90 points.
“It’s always fun to win. I had a good day and the course was perfectly suited for me. I’m glad to head back home with a win,” Van Aert said in the post-race flash interview.
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As Van Aert stated, the course certainly offered him the perfect setting to challenge Van der Poel. Nevertheless, it would always be a difficult task to beat the in-form Dutch rider. Both riders had a good start, which was in stark contrast to US-champion Stephen Hyde (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) who slipped and had to fight back from behind, just like in Bogense last week. In front, Van der Poel quickly opened up the gas and created a first gap on Van Aert, Corné van Kessel (Telenet Fidea Lions), Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux-Napoleon Games), Michael Boros (Pauwels Sauzen-Vastgoedservice) and Toon Aerts, who didn’t have a perfect start. Van Aert bridged back up with Van der Poel and the pace dropped a little. The front six ended the first lap together, with the rest of the field already trailing by at least 13 seconds. None of them would get back into the top 5.
Early on in the second lap, all riders in the lead group took a clean bike, except Van der Poel who gestured to the pit crew to lower the pressure. The site featured two loops up and down the main hill, and Wout van Aert led the front group ahead of Van der Poel, Aerts and the others when they reached the highest point of the course. At the foot of the climb, Van der Poel suddenly dropped his chain and had to put a foot to the ground. He seemed to stay cool but sixteen riders passed the Dutchman before he was able to ride his Stevens bike again. Meanwhile, Boros nearly collided with Van der Poel as he missed a corner in the following loop.
It turned out to be the decisive moment in the race. Toon Aerts was in third place when Van der Poel came to a stop, and he never got back up to the wheel of Van Aert. Van der Poel was caught in traffic and nearly forty seconds down on Van Aert. He was never able to get much closer than half a minute behind the leader. “I knew second place was the best possible result. I’m certainly not going to say that I was the strongest rider today,” Van der Poel said in the post-race flash interview.
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