Mathieu Van der Poel is truly all-terrain. After three months without competition, the Dutchman returned this Sunday for the cyclo-cross World Cup round in Namur, Belgium. The reigning world champion in the discipline raised his arms at the end of a fabulous fight against Thibau Nys, the overall leader of the World Cup.
In the leading group from the end of the first lap, the Alpecin-Premier Tech road rider made a significant return to cyclo-cross. On the fourth lap out of the nine planned, Mathieu Van der Poel fell in a technical part of the circuit. Nothing serious for the wearer of the rainbow jersey who quickly left.
After catching up, the Dutchman battled against Thibau Nys. And it’s the Belgian, in the last lap, who breaks down first. Yet in the lead, he falls into a 180 degree turn. Mathieu Van der Poel takes the opportunity to accelerate again and gain a few steps on his main opponent of the day.
Mathieu Van der Poel wins with the world champion jersey on his shoulders ahead of Thibau Nys and Michael Vanthourenhout. The Belgians are in force on the podium in their home race but they fell against the king of the discipline.
Worth a look
,autocrop(1200:630))