"I don't think I was the best in the sand" - Mathieu van der Poel victorious in Antwerp but not fully happy with his ride

To the surprise of no-one, Mathieu van der Poel rode to victory this Saturday afternoon at the World Cup Antwerp, the fourth round of the competition. He has now gotten two wins in two weeks and is even moving up the standings quite a lot, however he wasn't fully satisfied with his ride over the sandy course.

Van der Poel's performance saw his victory as the obvious endgame of this Saturday's final race. Right from the start of the second lap he began to accelerate and leave behind his closest competitors. But Laurens Sweeck and Emiel Verstrynge - who eventually finished on the podium - were still quite far behind at this point in the race.

With Wout van Aert suffering a puncture and Thibau Nys completely out of the picture, there was no true competition throughout much of the race. Even a badly-timed puncture on the penultimate lap didn't see his gap come down in a threatening way.

"It was a good race but I don't think I was the best in the sand today," van der Poel said in a post-race interview. "I made a few mistakes in the longer sections, but I felt better than last week". The Namur course was guided towards the climbers and it proved to be a more difficult challenge. Today in the technical and explosive terrain, no-one could match the World Champion.

And for the first time, van der Poel has dominated a race this season. Something which should happen more often from today onwards. "The legs felt stronger, this is also a completely different course but I felt during the week that I was fresher than I was before Namur. I'm happy to win again," he concluded. Tomorrow he will be back in action for the fifth round of the World Cup, as the riders tackle another sand course in Koksijde.