Van der Poel wins engrossing duel with Aerts in nasty Namur round of World Cup

It was a battle of attrition on Sunday’s World Cup race, with Mathieu van der Poel winning his third round in a row, burying himself to shake Toon Aerts on the final lap. The racers climbed to the citadel in Namur, Belgium, facing a treacherously muddy and difficult course in atrocious conditions. Eli Iserbyt had an 18-point World Cup gap over Aerts over night, but the conditions broke the leader, who had to climb off the bike.

Corne van Kessel led the field onto the first muddy climb, while van der Poel surged through the pack to take over before five minutes had elapsed. Only Aerts could hang with the world champion and the two finished Lap 1 ahead of van Kessel in the cold rain. Canadian Michael van den Ham moved from 49th to 45th on the opening lap of nine.

Aerts skipped away on Lap 2, van der Poel’s flat front tire requiring a 12-second fight back to rejoin by the end of Lap 3. On Lap 4 word came that a frozen Iserbyt had withdrawn from the race and helped into the medical tent. Under-23 world champion Tom Pidcock moved past van Kessel to assume the final podium position. The mud grew deeper.

Van der Poel and Aerts exchanged mistakes on Lap 6 as van den Ham weaved his way through the field into 38th. A mechanical saw Aerts fell off the pace at the end of Lap 6, but a corresponding bike problem for the Dutchman evened the contest once more at the beginning of Lap 7.

The Belgian surged away from van der Poel again but the world champion brought him back.

Van der Poel attacked at the beginning of the bell lap when Aerts clipped a pedal, but then the Belgian crashed and his battle for the win was over. All the fight was out of Aerts. A crash meant that Pidcock’s podium went to van Kessel.

Van der Poel was shattered at the end, a huge stalactite of spit hanging from his chin after he climbed out of the saddle. Aerts’ second place was enough to launch the reigning World Cup champion into the lead.

Van den Ham finished 32nd and Cameron Jette 56th.

2019-2020 UCI Cyclocross World Cup Round 6 Namur, Belgium, Elite Men
1) Matheiu van der Poel (The Netherlands/Corendon Circus) 1:05:59
2) Toon Aerts (Belgium/Telenet Baloise Lions) +0:55
3) Corne van Kessel (The Netherlands/Telenet Baloise Lions) +1:13
32) Michael van den Ham (Canada)
56) Cameron Jette (Canada)