"I was nearly dropped on the Kemmelberg. The strongest rider won today" - Classy Mathieu van der Poel full of praise for victorious Mads Pedersen after Gent Wevelgem

Despite his best efforts, Mathieu van der Poel couldn't quite follow up his E3 Saxo Classic victory on Friday with success at Gent Wevelgem this Sunday. The world champion narrowly missed out on victory in the final sprint to Mads Pedersen.

Afterwards however, there was no bad taste in the mouth of van der Poel. Instead, the Dutch superstar was full of praise for the eventual winner, sending Pedersen a classy message of congratulations in his post-race interview. “I really suffered a lot today. I was nearly dropped on the Kemmelberg. The strongest rider won today," assessed van der Poel honestly.

Whilst van der Poel and Pedersen were clear up ahead, there wasn't much separating the duo from the peloton in which, van der Poel's teammate, Jasper Philipsen was laying in wait, giving Alpecin-Deceuninck a tactical conundrum to consider.

“You have to make a decision at some point. As world champion you also want to ride in that situation, and Jasper doesn't win the sprint either,” van der Poel explains. “So that's always easy to say. I had to ride there and give it a try.”