Mathieu van der Poel: "In the sprint, I shoot out of my pedal. That's a disappointment"

It was yet another thrilling battle today between Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert in the Superprestige Heusden-Zolder. Mathieu van der Poel finished second as his foot came out of the pedal in the final sprint.

Both of them were equally matched. "I tried to make the difference in the last technical section, but it didn't work. We were evenly matched. It then came down to a sprint," van der Poel said in the post-race interview.

Van der Poel chose an aggressive approach from the beginning. It was important for him not to take any risks in the closing laps. "I didn't want to go out with too big a group. If you then have Wout with you, you know you're away for the rest of the cross. It's hard in Zolder to ride someone equivalent out of the wheel," explains the Dutchman.

The race came down to a final sprint, which van der Poel lost due to a pedal mishap. Although disappointed, he is looking forward to racing his rival again in the future. "I did try to put pressure once or twice during the cross but didn't manage to make the difference. I wanted to make it a long sprint at first, but it ended up being a short sprint. Unfortunately, in the sprint, I shoot out of my pedal. That's a disappointment, though, that I didn't get the chance to sprint. It's a shame, on to tomorrow,” concluded van der Poel.