Off day for Van der Poel at Koppenbergcross
Two days after claiming silver in the European Cyclo-cross Championships, Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) endured a rather more trying outing at the Koppenbergcross in Oudenaarde on Tuesday, placing a lowly 15th, some 3:51 down on winner Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice).
"Did I have an off day? Yes, I think so, yes. It was really tough today. I noticed immediately that Wout was strong and I was blowing up just trying to stay at his pace. I then just tried to do my own pace, but it was not high enough today," Van der Poel said, according to RTL.be.
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Van der Poel’s 2015-16 cyclo-cross season was blighted by a knee injury and he was forced to delay the start of his current campaign and skip the opening two rounds of World Cup in the United States after undergoing further surgery in July.
The Dutchman had a winning return to action, however, claiming victory at the first Superprestige in Gieten at the beginning of October and then winning the Valkenburg World Cup. The 2015 world champion downplayed the idea that his travails at Koppenbergcross were a consequence of not having recovered from his European Championships efforts.
“Last year when I was coming back from injury, I had a similar off-day at Spa-Francorchamps, but this time around I didn’t see it coming,” he said. “I still feel like I’m riding better and more consistently than last year, but I imagine a jour sans like this inevitable. The European Championships aren’t an excuse. I just hope that I’ll be good again at Ruddervoorde on Sunday.”
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