Wout van Aert could never really compete with Mathieu van der Poel on the field. However, he thinks the dominance of the world champion is less great this season.
In the crosses where Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel started together, something always went wrong this season, which meant that there was no real duel between the ‘Big Two’ of cyclo-cross.
No Van Aert-Van der Poel duel
In Antwerp, Van Aert missed his start and also suffered a puncture, meaning he only finished seventh. In Hofstade, Van Aert fell early in the race, but when he got back to the front, Van der Poel had already started his solo.
The match finally seemed to happen in Loenhout, Van Aert and Van der Poel were away alone. But then Van Aert suffered two punctures. And in Mol there was the fall of Van Aert, which ended his season.
Van Aert saw less dominant Van der Poel
Van der Poel won the nine crosses where he started. And yet Van Aert notices something. “I thought he was different, less dominant than last year,” says Van Aert CyclingFlits.
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Even though Van der Poel won all the crosses he rode this season. “It’s almost stupid to say. But you could see that he was sometimes more sensible.” Although Van Aert does admit that Van der Poel was always super strong and always left everyone behind.
