World champion Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Charles) got the better of his rival Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) for the first time this season after winning the fifth round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Zeven, Germany. The win laid to rest any doubts that he or the Belgian cycling community had about his form.
Van Aert capitalized on Van der Poel's early-race mechanical to build a strong lead, one that the Dutchman could not close and he finished second, ending his winning streak in the World Cup series.
“Of course, this was the most decisive moment of the race because Mathieu is the biggest opponent for all the starters," Van Aert said. "But when he has bad luck, of course, we don't wait for him, and we just go. We take our chances, but afterwards, it was such a long race that I think everyone had a chance to gain back time. I managed to keep the lead."
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The World Cup started with a select group taking shape of early on. Van der Poel led the way followed closely by Van Aert, Corne Van Kessel (Telenet Fidea Lions), Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux - Napoleon Games) and Michael Boros (Pauwels Sauzen – Vastgoedservice).
Bad luck struck several riders one-by-one by the second lap. Van Kessel broke the cleat off of his right shoe, Van der Poel had to dismount and struggled to fix a jammed chain, and Boros over-cooked a corner trying to avoid Van der Poel and rode into a post.
Van der Poel's mechanical likely played the biggest role in the outcome of the race, as the Dutchman lost valuable time to Van Aert. He managed to make his way back up to second place but he wasn't able to close the gap and finished runner-up to Van Aert at 47 seconds back, and only just managed to cross the line ahead of Toon Aerts (Telenet Fidea Lions), who was making up ground quickly on the Dutchman.
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