Magnificent Mathieu van der Poel continues winter domination with victory in Hulst

Mathieu van der Poel continues to prove himself unbeatable this winter. The dual-discipline world champion has taken a comfortable victory at the UCI World Cup in Hulst with Joris Nieuwenhuis and Lars van der Haar completing the podium

One of the few meetings of the discipline's so-called 'Big 3' this winter, both Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock were subjected to nightmare starts due to crashes and bike issues, all but ruling them out of race-winning contention despite the early stage of the race.

Away from all the chaos, it didn't take Mathieu van der Poel long to start asserting his authority on the race, around three laps in fact.

With 4 laps in the legs, van der Poel's advantage had stretched out to 23 seconds from Pim Ronhaar with Lars van der Haar at 26.

Although victory was already seemingly assured for the world champion if he could stay upright, the battle behind was heating up as Joris Nieuwenhuis joined Ronhaar and Van der Haar in the battle for the rest of the podium places.

The World Cup standings leader Eli Iserbyt was not having a good day and after six laps, the Pauwels Sauzen - Bingoal rider called it a day prematurely.

Wout van Aert meanwhile was very impressively picking off riders and working his way back up through the field. As the final lap began, he was closing in on the top 5. But not the podium, those spots went to Nieuwenhuis and Van der Haar