Who needs Mathieu van der Poel? Niels Vandeputte gives Alpecin-Deceuninck victory at World Cup Hulst in final race before return of cyclocross world champion

In the final race before Mathieu van der Poel's long-awaited return, the cyclocross world champion's Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Niels Vandeputte has taken a stunning solo victory on a wet and slippery edition of World Cup Hulst ahead of Felipe Orts and Pim Ronhaar.

With a fast start so important over the first few corners of the Hulst course, Alpecin-Deceuninck's Niels Vandeputte took control over the opening lap, leading ahead of chasers Lars van der Haar, Michael Vanthourenhout and Eli Iserbyt. At the end of lap 2, Vandeputte's advantage had stretched to over 20 seconds from the pack behind.

With the rain falling, mistakes began to become more frequent and with every mistake in the chase, the whole group was slowed up. For Vandeputte meanwhile, he had the freedom to choose his racing lines without concern of fallen rivals as he rode solo at the front.

In particular, World Cup leader Vanthournehout was having issues behind. Despite consistently showing good legs in the chase, the former European champion hit the deck on a number of occasions, sliding out or getting stuck in the ruts and being forced to unclip.

Vandeputte though, was staying strong, 13 seconds clear of Felipe Orts at the end of lap 5. With just two laps to go though, the Spaniard was on the charge and hunting down a first ever World Cup victory. Nevertheless, as Vandeputte took the bell for the final lap, he still had 13 seconds over Orts. As the Spaniard's charge started to wane ever so slightly, Vandeputte avoided any major errors and held on to a relatively comfortable solo victory in the end.