Van der Poel solos to World Cup win

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World champion Mathieu van der Poel (BKCP-Corendon) handed a blow to his rivals two weeks ahead of his rainbow jersey defence. With one fierce acceleration in the fifth of eight laps he decided the sixth round of the World Cup. With a wheelie at the finish the 20 year-old completed a flawless solo ride, capturing his third World Cup win in a row. When climbing up the podium in Lignières, France the winner – who turns 21 on January 19 – received a big hug from grandfather Raymond Poulidor.

“It was something special to celebrate. I had one really good acceleration. It was enough to get the win,” Van der Poel said.

Despite a troubled start Van der Poel patiently managed to work his way through traffic. Once he reached the front of the race he set off to the victory. “It was a hard race. I got boxed in at the start. I had to come from far. I couldn’t ride my own line because there were some guys ahead of me. It was a bit frustrating at the beginning. I just took it easy. I rode my tempo from the beginning to the end. I saw the guys in front sticking together. I knew the tempo wasn’t high enough. I rode my own tempo to the front. It was quite easy to come back.”

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In the World Cup standings it was runner-up Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice) who won the battle with European champion Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin). The World Cup leader managed to shake off the Dutch rider in the final lap, and increased his lead over Van der Haar in the standings with five points up to 21 points.

“The gap isn’t huge but today I did a good job,” Van Aert told Telenet Play Sports. During the first half of the race Van Aert controlled the race, always riding in the top three. The first accelerations from Van der Haar and Laurens Sweeck (Era Real Estate-Murprotec) didn’t cause too much damage. Halfway into the race there were still eight riders left in contention for the victory: Van der Poel, Van Aert, Van der Haar and Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea), Laurens Sweeck, Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink), Kevin Pauwels (Marlux-Napoleon Games) and home rider Clément Venturini (Cofidis).

When Van der Poel moved to the front in the fifth lap all alarms went off. Van der Haar and Van Aert were attentive and marked his wheel. Meeusen was the rider in fourth place. At the first technical short off-camber climb Van Aert slid out sideways and the two Dutch riders blasted away.

“The sensations were good but I made too many mistakes on the technical sections," Van Aert told Telenet Play Sports. "My pedals were troubling me and I switched bikes. That’s when Mathieu attacked. Quickly it was clear that we were riding for second place. I tried to keep the pressure on but without a mistake from Mathieu he would be the deserving winner. I’m happy with the race. You can’t win everything.”

Van der Poel soon dropped Van der Haar, and the race was decided. Van Aert managed to work his way back up to Van der Haar but the other Belgian riders and Venturini were not able to make up any ground. In the closing laps Van der Poel pleased the crowd at the ‘Horse and Donkey Center’ by flicking his rear wheel sideways at the fly-over. His wheelie at the finish line was the icing on the cake. Van Aert put Van der Haar under pressure in the final lap and on a long straight-forward section the Belgian rider blasted away.

“It’s a bummer that I had to let go of both Van der Poel and Van Aert. Luckily there are two more weeks left ahead of the World championships to work on my accelerations,” Van der Haar told Telenet Play Sports.

Kevin Pauwels won the battle for fourth place ahead of Meeusen, Sweeck and a frustrated Nys. The latter stated that he struggled in the technical sections where he excelled as a young rider. Gianni Vermeersch (Marlux-Napoleon Games) beat Venturini in the sprint for eighth. U23 World champion Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux-Napoleon Games) had a bad start, worked his way back to Vermeersch but then got dropped in the closing laps and finished tenth.

Next week the final round of the World Cup is held in Hoogerheide, Netherlands.

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