Mathieu van der Poel again delivered a great job for Jasper Philipsen in the final. The Dutchman was subsequently declassified, but the admiration remains afterwards.
The fact that Mathieu van der Poel was put back in the result by a push and it also earned him a fine will probably be hard for him. Jasper Philipsen was allowed to keep his victory.
Marc Sergeant therefore calls Van der Poel the best lead-out in the world, better than Michael Morkov, Jasper De Buyst or Danny van Poppel. The fact that Philipsen won is almost entirely due to Van der Poel’s lead-out, says Sergeant.
Van der Poel did push Biniam Girmay with his shoulder on his lead-out to create an opening. Although Sergeant thinks that push is just decent enough to pass. “I think the declassification is strict and in any case we should not reduce the phenomenal lead-out to that push,” he says at The newspapaer.
