Mathieu van Der Poel storms to victory at Azencross Loenhout as Wout van Aert struggles on return

Mathieu van Der Poel has won the 40th edition of the Azencross Loenhout, beating Thibau Nys and Laurens Sweeck as Wout van Aert could only manage fourth.

In the first meeting of the cyclocross season between Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, it was the Dutchman who came out on top with a strong display as van Aert struggled in his first race since his crash in the Vuelta as he suffered several incidents throughout the race.

At the start, it was Wout van Aert who led in to the first corner, but a small mistake on the first lap gave his rival Van der Poel the chance to build an early and ominous looking lead. Things then begun to unravel for the Belgian as he fell on lap 2, and lost 17 seconds to the leader.

Either Van der Poel or Van Aert have won each of the last 7 editions of the race, the last rider other than the big two to win the race was Tom Meeusen in 2015. After 4 laps, van Aert was riding with Thibau Nys, 18 seconds behind Van Der Poel who was 7 seconds ahead of Laurens Sweeck in second. Heading in to the sixth lap, van Der Poel began to stretch his legs and the gap to second place grew to 13 seconds.

But then van der Poel showed that he was human as he crashed on the sixth lap, giving the chasers a glimmer of hope of catching him. Yet with 1 lap to go, he led by 32 seconds from Sweeck, who had been joined by Nys and Van Aert. Van Der Poel surged further clear, as Nys beat Sweeck and Van Aert missed the podium.

Next up will be the World Cup Besancon, which Mathieu van der Poel won last year. Van der Poel will be in action there again on the 29th, but Wout van Aert will miss that race out.