"I definitely tried to follow Mathieu, but he was a bit too strong" - Tibor del Grosso best of the rest at Hulst Worlds

Tibor del Grosso couldn't have realistically aimed for more, but he has gotten a lot out of the Hulst World Championships. After winning his first elite national title, the 22-year old now, in his first elite World Championships, rode to a second place where he was only beaten by Mathieu van der Poel.

It is the culmination of a breakthrough winter for the Alpecin - Premier Tech rider, who has beaten Wout van Aert at the Superprestige Heusden-Zolder as his most memorable win; and finished second in four World Cup races (one against Thibau Nys, and three against van der Poel). With his teammate and compatriot's presence, del Grosso couldn't aim for a win, but was happy to see van der Poel take the win and beat the world title record.

Del Grosso will have time to achieve the same in the future, something that looks increasingly more likely. But in the meantime, he led out the Hulst World Championships in the first lap, and then managed to race into the silver medal in his home country.

"It was really special to ride on Sunday, with all this spectators, and to finish second at the highest level behind a phenomenon," del Grosso said in a post-race interview to Wielerflits. "I was happy that the three of us got away right away. That made the race a bit easier. I definitely tried to follow Mathieu, but he was a bit too strong."

Whilst Thibau Nys has for many years taken the pressure from the Belgian media and due to his connection with Sven Nys, del Grosso has been able to develop fully in the shadow of van der Poel at Alpecin. That development has already turned him into a proven winner, and at this point in time, he has finished second to van der Poel on three consecutive occasions.

In the technical Dutch course, in which all riders would inevitably make small mistakes throughout the races, del Grosso had the best of Nys and in the final lap made the difference. "That was pretty intense. We were evenly matched," he argued.

"We each had sections where we were a bit better. I might have had a slight advantage when it started raining at the end, because I think I had a bit more tread on my tires. I was happy he made a mistake on the last lap".