His third places in Kortrijk and Tabor did not harm Wout van Aert. On the contrary, during his first confrontation with Mathieu van der Poel, the Kempenaar may probably be a row ahead at the start.
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Van Aert was not yet able to win, but the Jumbo-Visma rider made an impression twice during his return to the field. Wait and see what that will give in Boom (6/12) later this week. This is normally followed by his first duel with Van der Poel, in Namur.
Van Aert will then normally be able to start in the second row during the second World Cup segment. A row higher than was the case last weekend. Because of his two podium places, he immediately rose from 32nd to 19th place in the UCI ranking.
World champion Van der Poel starts in the front row, but drops from third to fifth place due to his inactivity. Toon Aerts remains number one, ahead of Eli Iserbyt.
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Due to the corona crisis, the UCI has taken a transitional measure for the current world rankings: all points earned last season in crosses that were canceled this year will be retained until the end of the current campaign. Which immediately had a serious effect on the current UCI rankings.
The full top ten:
1. Toon Aerts – 2,566 points
2. Eli Iserbyt – 2,551
3. Laurens Sweeck – 2,039
4. Michael Vanthourenhout – 1966
5. Mathieu van der Poel – 1940
6. Lars van der Haar – 1,687
7. Quinten Hermans – 1,437
8. Corné van Kessel – 1,420
9. Tom Pidcock – 1.213
10. Felipe Orts – 1.026
…
19. Wout van Aert – 695
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