All eyes were on Mathieu van der Poel yesterday at Herentals however, under the radar his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates also thrived on return. Quinten Hermans and Gianni Vermeersch both finished in the Top10, and the latter runs through a hard but successful day on the bike.
"We had a bit of fun on the beach (in Alicante, ed.) and then got the urge to dive back into cyclocross. It was quite successful. If you had told me beforehand that I'd be in the top ten, I wouldn't have believed it. It was a successful comeback," Gianni Vermeersch told In de Leiderstrui. Together with van der Poel, Hermans and Timo Kielich - who was a DNF - the Belgian team saw the return of their men's block. Niels Vandeputte is the only men's elite rider who races the full season, who put on a strong performance but cracked in the end and went on to finish sixth.
Behind, Vermeersch sprinted to eighth on the day in a separate chasing group, beating his teammate Hermans and European Champion Michael Vanthourenhout. That is already quite a good sign in the first race of the season for the duo, who will have a competitive stint throughout the Christmas period alongside many others such as Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock for example.
"My lungs were burning the entire race. It was tough, but I had fun," the former Gravel World Champion reported. "I was able to ride well throughout the race, and my last lap was my best, so I'm very satisfied. I'll try to do as well as possible up to the Belgian Championships, and then it's back to racing on the road."
It was a good day today. In Herentals, home of our team, @mathieuvdpoel crowned his return to cyclocross with a solid win. But Niels Vandeputte, @GVermeersch and @Quintenhermans also finished in the top ten. @ToonVandebosch fell just outside. Great job, guys! #alpecindeceuninck
