Mathieu van der Poel makes it a perfect 10 with victory in Zonhoven

It's now ten races, ten wins for Mathieu van der Poel this winter after another impressive display on Sunday afternoon at the UCI World Cup in Zonhoven.

In a disastrous start for Cameron Mason, the Brit crashed in the first few hundred meters and was forced into a very early withdrawal. After the first lap, a trio of Joris Nieuwenhuis, Mathieu van der Poel and Laurens Sweeck held the advantage.

The lead group swelled over the coming couple of laps, with the likes of Pim Ronhaar, Eli Iserbyt, Thibau Nys, Toon Vandenbosch all regaining contact with the front of the race.

It was Ronhaar who was setting the pace at the front of the group and for some, matching that pace was too much of a challenge. Among those struggling, World Cup standings leader, Iserbyt.

On lap 4, van der Poel finally made his move. Immediately getting a gap as the chasers each waited for another to do work before Nieuwenhuis eventually took things upon himself to give chase.

As van der Poel rode where the rest were forced to run, the gap showed no signs of closing despite the hard work by the chase.

Behind van der Poel, the battle for the rest of the podium was exciting. Four challengers still very much in the mix at least until a Vandebosch crash in the sand sit ruled him out, leaving Nieuwehuis, Ronhaar and Sweeck left to compete for second and third.

In the end, Nieuwenhuis took second with Sweeck outlasting Ronhaar for third.

Results powered by FirstCycling.com