Rasmus Tiller takes Dwars door het Hageland win as late puncture rules out Mathieu van der Poel

Uno-X Pro Cycling Team's Rasmus Tiller took a brilliant win at Dwars door het Hageland, powering to victory in a three-way sprint to the line.

The 176-kilometer race is perfect for chaos. In northern Belgium the organizers have plotted a route which is filled with cobbled and gravel sectors alongside short and sharp climbs. It's as explosive as it can be, as hard as a spring classic but with a shorter distance.

With around 75km to go, Mathieu van der Poel decided the time was right to make an acceleration, attacking on a cobbled sector and riding clear despite miscalculating on a corner and showing off his bike handling skills to save himself.

10km later he was caught and immediately his teammate, Gianni Vermeersch although he was unable to get a gap.

At 50km to go a group of around 30 riders had over a minute advantage on the main peloton.

Casper Pedersen was the next rider to up the pace and as he rode clear, the chase behind stalled. With 35km to go his lead had stretched out towards a minute but soon after he suffered an ill-timed bout of cramp, being caught soon after.

Nightmare then struck for van der Poel with 20km to go as he came to a standstill due to a rear wheel puncture.

Up front seven riders led the race with Soudal - Quick-Step having three of them and a massive advantage. A chase group behind that van der Poel had latched onto after his puncture was just 25 seconds behind.

With 5km to go the second group was just 12 seconds behind the leaders.

In the final it was Rasmus Tiller of the Uno-X Pro Cycling Team that took the victory, overcoming the challenge of Stan Van Tricht and Florian Vermeersch in a final sprint to the line.

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