Mathieu van der Poel wins his cyclocross season debut
It was the "Winter van der Poel-stice" at the X2O Trofee's third round
Mathieu van der Poel returned to cyclocross racing in a fine battle with European champion Eli Iserbyt in Saturday’s third round of the X2O Trofee, once called the DVV Trofee. The Dutch world champion prevailed in what some wags called the Winter van der Poel-stice. Although Wout Van Aert has raced one round each of X2O Trofee, Superprestige and the World Cup, he was absent in Antwerp. Van der Poel and Van Aert will finally meet at the second round of the World Cup on December 20 in Namur.
UCI number one ranked Eli Iserbyt held the series lead after winning the first two rounds. Lars van der Haar was Iserbyt’s closest rival at +1:20
Lap 1 saw van der Poel and Iserbyt leading with van der Haar just behind. The Belgian and Dutchman increased their gap on Lap 2 of eight. As van der Haar and others started to catch up, the world champion went clear.
Van der Poel wasn’t having it all his way, crashing in the sand on Lap 3. But he didn’t even take a bike change and led Iserbyt and Quinten Hermans by seven seconds at the line.
Iserbyt made the junction on Lap 4, where van der Poel’s bike change put him in second place. The duo received company on Lap 5 in the form of Hermans, Laurens Sweeck and Michael Vanthourenhout. Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal had three fellows in the quintet. The group swelled even further before the end of the lap, but a sand section caused another selection of van der Poel and Iserbyt.
Van der Poel led the duo on Lap 6, and an error from the Belgian allowed the Dutchman to go clear before a sand section. By the beginning of Lap 7, it was clear that the rest of the riders wouldn’t come back to Iserbyt and van der Poel. Van der Poel rode a steep bank that Iserbyt had to run and heard the bell with a five-second gap.
On the bell lap van der Poel increased his lead and held on by 6-seconds. Brit Tom Pidcock stepped onto his first podium of the season.
Van der Poel and Iserbyt will cross swords again Sunday at the Superprestige race on Sunday in Gavere, where Canada’s Michael van den Ham will make his European season debut.
2020-2021 X2O Trofee, Round 3, Elite Men
1) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherland/Alpecin-Fenix) 58:10
2) Eli Iserbyt (Belgium/Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) +0:06
3) Tom Pidcock (Great Britain/Trinity Racing) +0:27
