Ryan Kamp admits trying to irritate Wout van Aert in early laps of CX World Championships: "Getting in the way is saying a lot, but still"

Mathieu van der Poel sailed with relative ease to a record-equalling 7th Cyclocross World Championships win on Sunday in Lievin, as a much-anticipated dual with rival Wout van Aert never truly materialised. As it turns out, the may be thanks in part, to a small but potentially key role played by Van der Poel's countryman Ryan Kamp in the early laps.

Having started the race on the 4th row, Van Aert immediately found himself stuck in traffic, trying desperately to work his way through the field and up to Van der Poel, who was already building a sizeable lead just a few corners in. Kamp's role in the whole thing? To try and irritate and slow up Van Aert's attempt to get to the front of the chasing pack.

"Wout was behind me. It just so happened that I ended up behind Wout. Then something happened in the first corner, which almost caused them all to fall. That gave me a gap on the rest," Kamp recalls of a frantic start to the race, in quotes collected by In de Leiderstrui. "In the first lap I was able to duel with Wout. Getting in the way is saying a lot, but still: you know that he is the favorite with Mathieu. If you can stay ahead of him, that is always a bonus."

Kamp's words echo a similar role played by Belgian Michael Vanthourenhout, who tried in vain to slow Van der Poel and give Van Aert time to reach the front. "I wanted to hold Mathieu back a bit at the beginning, but you could see that he really wanted to be in the lead and push hard," the former European champion told Sporza. "You can't stop that. He was already gone on the first bridge. Nothing you can do about it."

In the end, it was, as mentioned, Van der Poel and the Dutch that ended up getting the better of their respective battles. For Kamp, his race finished with a creditable 11th place. "Top ten would have been nice, especially for my list for later. I come from the fourth row, so eleventh is fine," the Dutchman assesses. "Compared to last year, where I almost fell outside the top 20, this is nice now. It is still a World Championship, which is also a higher level."