Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) continued his winning ways at the Exact Cross in Loenhout on Friday, soloing away from the first lap to claim his fourth win of four races.
Thibau Nys (Baloise-Trek) out-sprinted Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon) to claim second place, while Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) suffered a minor crash after running into a spectator on the final lap and had to concede the podium fight.
"It was a difficult race, it wasn't easy to make the difference," Van der Poel said. "It's a course where it's difficult to really ride much faster than someone else because then you quickly make mistakes. But I think it's a nice circuit. Furthermore, I had cold hands for the first time. So it was definitely the toughest 'cross race so far, especially after the tough cross yesterday."
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The highly anticipated first meeting of the cyclocross season between long-time rivals Van der Poel and Van Aert fizzled before it could get properly underway, and the Belgian finished fourth after a late crash.
Van Aert still had enough clout to get a front-row slot on the grid, and while he was washed away in the first pedal strokes, he used his power to get to the front for the first turn, leading Van der Poel and a surprisingly strong Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) - also making his 'cross season debut - in the opening lap.
For four full minutes it appeared as if Van Aert might give Van der Poel a fight but one small mistake in an off-camber u-turn slowed Van Aert and the world champion floated past and quickly established a small lead.
On a fast course with some sections of slick mud, Van der Poel powered away into the mist with Van Aert chasing just a few seconds behind at the end of the first lap.
Although Van Aert poured on the power to close the gap to the Dutchman, he slid out on the second lap again, giving more of an advantage to Van der Poel.
Sweeck took up the chase next, going away from Van Aert, Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Nys and by the end of the third lap, he was able to chase down the world champion, who had a mechanical incident.
"My saddle was broken, which meant I had to change bikes," Van der Poel explained. "But Sweeck also rode strongly, I certainly didn't let him come back. After that, I just had to keep doing my thing and then I could extend my lead a bit further. And that worked out."
Despite the stellar effort, Sweeck couldn't stay with Van der Poel for long. He remained in no-man's land seven seconds behind the leader and Van Aert and Nys chasing at 18 seconds and the close of the next lap.
Much as he had the previous day in Gavere, Van der Poel started making mistakes as the laps went by, sliding out in a turn just before the mechanical zone. Also similar to Gavere, Nys came on strong in the penultimate lap and caught Sweeck while Van Aert struggled to hold the pace.
At the bell, Van der Poel still held a lead of 32 seconds despite the minor gaffe while Nys, Sweeck and Van Aert took a moment to catch their breath with Vandeputte out of sight at over a minute from the race leader.
Van Aert crashed in a turn, however, early in the final lap, leaving Nys and Sweeck to ride away with the final podium spots.
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