Van der Poel wins Valkenburg World Cup

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Dutch champion Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) won the third Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup round in Valkenburg, Netherlands. Once again the young generation dominated the race in the Elite Men category. The 21-year-old Dutch rider finished solo, well ahead of World champion Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice) and Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux-Napoleon Games).

"It's good to win a World Cup round," Van der Poel told Telenet Play Sports. A crash from Van Aert made it easier to keep his gap over his rivals. "Yesterday it was my turn to crash, now it was Wout. If we put each other under pressure mistakes can happen more quickly. We're a close match to each other these days. To make the difference we have to test our limits."

Halfway through the nine-lap race around the famous Cauberg climb there were five leaders in the race with Van der Poel and Van Aert clearly being the strongest men. With three laps to go on the mostly dry course Van der Poel jumped away in a technical section, creating a small gap on Van Aert, Vanthourenhout and Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea). One lap later the gap was still there when Van Aert slipped away in a fast off-camber descent, taking Meeusen down with him.

"He already had a gap when I fell. It's stupid to say you just crash out of the blue. Riders know why they crash: it's because you're riding on your limit. Mathieu was simply better and I'm happy I could salvage second place," Van Aert admitted.

Van der Poel easily brought the victory home, winning with a lead of 14 seconds over Van Aert and 21 seconds ahead of Vanthourenhout. "I was riding on my limit. I had a reference point where I saw that the gap was suddenly much bigger. I thought that Wout was the only rider not to crash but they were all affected," Van der Poel said.

Much earlier in the race Van Aert had played his cards. After a fast start from European champion Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) it was the world champion who took over the initiative. Only Van der Haar, Vanthourenhout, Meeusen, Toon Aerts (Telenet-Fidea) and Kevin Pauwels (Marlux-Napoleon Games) were glued on his wheel.

Van der Poel didn't have a great start and the fast pace up front put him in trouble. Van der Haar crashed out of the lead, and halfway into the second lap Van Aert dropped his rivals, with Van der Poel still trailing at 11 seconds. During the two following laps Van der Poel went in pursuit of Van Aert. The chase in front was full on and their pace blew away the rest of the pack. After four laps of racing the duo was 20 seconds ahead of chasers Meeusen, Vanthourenhout and Pauwels.

"Early on I threw my cards on the table and Mathieu was able to come back," Van Aert said. After the duo got together the pace dropped again as both riders needed time to recover. "He put me under a lot of pressure and I was glad I could close the gap. Once he has a gap it's hard to close down. It was an option to leave him alone in front for a bit longer but you don't know how good he is," Van der Poel said.

Vanthourenhout profited from the slower pace up front to bridge back up, together with Meeusen and Pauwels. Due to the crash from Van Aert and Meeusen the young Belgian nearly captured second place but Van Aert passed him again late in the race.

"Due to the crash I had quite a big gap but I knew it would be hard to hold on to. After the stairs I felt I didn't have enough left in the tank," Vanthourenhout told Telenet Play Sports.

Tom Meeusen was in the mix for a podium spot in Valkenburg after a week in which he received a critical comment from team manager Sven Nys. "It's been a turbulent week. I'm happy I managed two fourth places this weekend," Meeusen said. Meeusen hit Van Aert's bike with his knee during the pile-up in the penultimate lap but he didn't mind too much. "It's a challenging course and then this can happen. Wout went full gas and slipped away, getting stuck behind the fencing," Meeusen said.

In the World Cup standings Van Aert leads with 230 points, strengthening his lead over Laurens Sweeck (Beobank-Corendon) who finished ninth in Valkenburg up to 56 points. Michael Vanthourenhout moves up to third place with 166 points, two more than teammate Pauwels. Van der Poel didn't participate in the two first World Cup rounds; he's 19th overall with 80 points.

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