Van der Poel untouchable in Ruddervoorde

Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Correndon) swept to his third Superprestige victory of the season at Ruddervoorde, beating arch-rival Wout van Aert (Crelan-Charles) by 10 seconds. Lars van der Haar (Telenet-Fidea Lions) finished third, a distant 50 seconds back.

After a thrilling, back-and-forth women's race which was closely contested until the very end, the men delivered a markedly different race. It was, as has been the case with so many races in recent times, an exhibition by Dutch champion Van der Poel.

He had signalled his intentions from the very start, leading the field away on lap one. Quinten Hermans (Telenet-Fidea Lions) and Van Aert were up there with him, but their brief time at the head of the race would be the closest either got to challenging for the win.

Riding through the sand section of that opening lap, Van der Poel jumped from Hermans' wheel to take a different line and eased past into the lead. Turning on the power, he led Van Aert by and handful of seconds going into lap two. A lap later the gap would be up to 12 and the win decided.

Van Aert managed to hang in there for the remainder of the race, holding the gap at around the same margin until the finish. The rain that came midway through might have provided some hope, but changed nothing.

For Van der Poel, there was almost no trouble. The only worry was when he was accidentally hit by a spectator waving at the television cameras, but today nothing could affect his dominant ride.

The fight for the final podium spot was more interesting. Van der Haar had looked comfortable in the opening laps, riding around in between Van Aert and a chase group.

However, midway through the race he was caught by Laurens Sweeck (Era-Circus), Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux-Napoleon Games) and Toon Aerts (Telenet-Fidea Lions). Sweeck and Vanthourenhout would last a handful of laps in the group before being distanced by the Telenet men on lap five

Aerts and van der Haar then rode in formation until the final lap, where van der Haar made his move to seal the final podium spot by 11 seconds. The result leaves Van der Poel and Van Aert level at the top of the Supeprestige rankings with 57 points apiece. Van der Haar is third with 51.

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