Van der Poel dominates Superprestige Zonhoven

Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) soloed to victory in the iconic sand pit at Zonhoven, making it five wins in five races at the Superprestige Trophy. Wout Van Aert (Cibel-Cebon) took a distant second, as he did at Scheldecross on Saturday, finishing 43 second down. Toon Aerts (Telenet Fidea Lions) rounded out the podium, 1:35 back.

After his minute-plus win at Scheldecross, it's van der Poel's second win of the weekend and the 15th of the season. The only blemishes to his perfect record in the major cyclo-cross series - the Superprestige, the UCI World Cup and the DVV Trofee - are his absences at Waterloo and Iowa City and a 21st place at Koppenbergcross.

Van der Poel made his move on the very first lap of the race, going it alone at the first opportunity. By the end of the lap he was already 21 seconds clear, with a group of six chasers, including Van Aert, emerging behind.

Young British rider Tom Pidcock (TP Racing) was an early victim of the icy conditions, falling in the sand on a downhill section before recovering to finish just outside the top ten in a brutal race. Up front, Van Aert was trying to push on from the chase group, trying in vain to limit the damage van der Poel had meted out.

The world champion managed to thin out the chase group, taking Aerts and Lars van der Haar (Telenet Fidea Lions) with him. By the end of lap two, the gap to van der Poel was already 40 seconds though, and the chasers' dreams of competing for a win looked just as distant.

Van Aert went once again on lap four, gapping his Telenet companions, with seven seconds between each of the trio at the midway point. Aerts would make it back to Van Aert though, while nearly a minute up the road van der Poel was in a race of his own.

Aerts lost ground on lap seven, but kept Van Aert in his sights until the penultimate lap. There, he was forced to stop for over half a minute with a mechanical, sealing his third place. Well over a minute up the road, van der Poel had some trouble too, clipping the barrier on the inside of a corner and going down. But the race was already over - such was his domination that he could afford a spot of showboating along the way too.

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