Mathieu van der Poel recovers from disappointing start to ease to UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup win in Antwerp

Published 23/12/2023 at 16:47 GMT

Mathieu van der Poel recovered from a bad start to win the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup race in Antwerp by 29 seconds. The Dutchman dropped to 28th off the line but worked his way through the pack before surging clear and cruising to the line. Wout van Aert emerged from the chasers to take second, with Eli Iserbyt completing the podium in third to extend his lead in the overall standings.

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World champion Mathieu van der Poel dominated the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup race in Antwerp to win by 29 seconds from Wout van Aert and Eli Iserbyt.

The Dutchman made the worst possible start when he missed his pedal and dropped to 28th before recovering superbly.

He made up ground and then timed his big push to perfection in the sand section to drop the chasing pack and never looked back, easing to the 34th World Cup victory of his career and 152nd in total.

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Explaining his poor getaway, Van der Poel told Eurosport: “I missed my start a bit, I clipped out of my pedal and got caught up in the chaos a bit so I had to take my time to get to the front but I felt the legs were good, so I didn’t panic.”

On his decisive move, he added: “I was behind Eli [Iserbyt] and he made a mistake and I noticed they were struggling a little bit with the sand section so I tried to get there as smooth as possible and I immediately had a gap.

“I hoped that behind me they would look a bit at each other because it was quite a fast race with a lot of wind, but I managed to keep my pace and I felt good to the end.”

Behind the world champion, the chasing pack were evenly matched before Van Aert made his move at the start of the eighth and final lap to seal second.

The Belgian was followed closely by his countryman Iserbyt, who completed the podium to increase his lead at the top of the overall World Cup standings over Pim Ronhaar.

Britain’s Tom Pidcock crashed on the sand off the start line but bounced back to finish eighth, one minute and 14 seconds behind Van der Poel.

The next race takes place in Gavere on December 26 and is live on Eurosport and discovery+.

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