King of Antwerpen 👑 Last lap and MVDP is cruising with +35s gap on van Aert who starts to power away from Iserbyt! @SportPic_Agency #CXWorldCup
Magnificent Mathieu van der Poel blitzes the field for first UCI World Cup win of the winter in Antwerp
CyclocrossSaturday, 23 December 2023 at 16:12
Recovering from a slow start, Mathieu van der Poel has absolutely dominated what was a world-class field in Antwerp.
In a nightmare start for two of the big guns, Tom Pidcock had issues, holding up Mathieu van der Poel in the process. As the pair attempted to pick their way back through the field, Joris Nieuwenhuis, Eli Iserbyt and Michael Vanthourenhout were the early front runners although there weren't any real differences.
On lap 3 however, van der Poel had got himself right back to the front of proceedings. He didn't waste long recovering before kicking clear either, the world champion accelerating through the sand to extend into a lead. Once he made his move, that was it and van der Poel quickly rode out of sight. In seemingly no time at all, the Dutchman was over 20 seconds clear.
Behind the dominant, sole leader, the battle for second was intriguing as a big group were still locked together.
Entering the final lap, van der Poel's lead had upped to near a minute, whilst behind, Eli Iserbyt and Wout van Aert were proving the best of the rest. In the end, it was van Aert who won the race for second with Iserbyt having to settle for the final spot on the podium.
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- Nobody is saying that he is tin he Top 4 GT riders but nobdy is also saying he is capable of winning the TDF in the presence of Pog and Jonas. He was already fairly blown away before his crash and if we assume that Bora hired him to win the TDF, then it would not be considered a success. That he won the Vuelta only make it not a total fail.abstractengineer19-11-2024
- "The viewing and visitor figures are both better than when they were riding" - what a BS. Please compare (and only then) visitor figures during current season vs when WvA and MvdP are back in December (hopefully!) otherwise you are comparing oranges to apples.averagecyclist19-11-2024
- I counted 16 riders under 24 out of 43 that started. Once was only 16 ! Two of the top riders are Zoe and Schreiber and both under 23 yet that have done 50 min races in the past with the elites so I think it's just bad clock management. Let them race 50 freakin' minutes! One more lap could have made a big dffierence most times in the podium and winner.frieders319-11-2024
- He needs to finish out his contract and then go hit MTB and Cross/Gravel really hard, that's where his heart is.awp18-11-2024
- Pidcock is starting to sound like Froome now.Sweep18-11-2024
- I think this was because there were junior women in the race. If a race has junior women am pretty sure it has to be less than 45 minutes. I believe a rule is coming in for next season that will fine organisers that don't put on a junior women's race a fine equivalent to the prize money. So fingers crossed we should see more longer elite and junior women's races from next season.NorrisHippocampe18-11-2024
- Of course he CAN. Big salary in cycling is not when you win but when they talk about you (and your team / sponsors). For every news about Jonas, MVdP or Wout there are 10 times more(!) news about Pidcock (like everyday for last 2 months?). Since cycling is advertising sport not competitive sport (in terms of from money comes from) Pidcock is winner and GOAT - change my mind. ;-)averagecyclist18-11-2024
- Why do the women CXs keep getting short changed with the length of theor races? They could have easily done another lap to put them at 50 minutes which is their time limit. Yet another CX race where they fail to reach this when they had a chance to. Come on ... the math isn't that hard to figure out lap times and divide into 50 min!frieders318-11-2024
- All pro cyclists are massively underpaid! The amount of riding and physical exertion they put their bodies through is crazy compared to other sports. I can't think of any other sport where you are physically active at a very high level of power output for hours on end each day.Pogboom17-11-2024
- When I was working for Starkist/Heinz my manager quit. So the next week my group was put under another manager. During our first meeting he asked if there was anything we needed to tell him. I said that I would be out the following week on vacation. He said "I don't know if I can let you go on vacation". I replied, "You can't tell if I can go. You can only tell me if I can come back".Sweep17-11-2024