"I found myself in chaos" - Mathieu van der Poel recovers from nightmare start to claim victory in Antwerp

Mathieu van der Poel is by far and away the best male cyclocross rider on the planet at the moment, of that there is no doubt. The latest example of this, a fabulous victory at the UCI World Cup in Antwerp.

This time, even a disastrous start couldn't stop the world champion. “I came off my pedal,” Van der Poel explained post-race. “Then I found myself in chaos. So I had to take my time to ride back to the front. But I felt the legs were good, so I didn't panic and took my time. I always remain calm. But you do end up in the chaos, all kinds of things happened. It was important to try to advance as quietly as possible.”

Once he'd made his way back to the head of the race, van der Poel continued to power on, racing clear of all his rivals and easing to a dominant victory. “There were some parts where you could easily overtake, so I never had to panic," he recalls. "And it also makes a difference if you ride around with good legs. I have had a very good year on the road. And the back problems that I struggled with last year in cross country are currently very good. Then I can lose my strength. I think that's the biggest difference. It's going well, I can't complain.”

“I was sitting behind Eli Iserbyt. He made a mistake and I noticed that they were having a bit of trouble with the sand passage, so I tried to drive through it as smoothly as possible. I immediately had a gap," concludes van der Poel who took the ahead of Wout van Aert in second and Iserbyt in third. "I hoped that they would look at each other behind me, because it was a pretty fast race, with quite a bit of wind. But I was able to keep up my pace and felt good until the end.”