Van der Poel starts 2018 with victory on new Canyon Inflite CF SLX - Video

Mathieu van der Poel kicked off the new year with his 22nd victory of the season at the GP Sven Nys in Baal, Belgium on Sunday. With the turn of the calendar page, the European champion raced the rainy, muddy DVV Verzekeringen Trofee event on his new Canyon Inflite CF SLX.

Van der Poel made the switch from Stevens to Canyon with the change of the team from Beobank-Corendon to Corendon-Circus - sponsors that have signed on for three years.

Racing on new equipment in a soupy mud-fest like riders encountered in Baal could have been risky, but Van der Poel made quick work of rival Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Charles), riding away from the world champion in the second half of the race to pad his already huge lead in the timed DVV Trofee series.

He now leads the overall by 7:34 over Toon Aerts (Telenet-Fidea), with Van Aert third at 9:09.

You can see the details on Van der Poel's bike in the video above. For English subtitles, click the closed caption button on the lower right corner (CC) of the video.