In Mathieu van der Poel’ case wearing the white jersey not only distinguishes him as the leader in the Cyclocross World Cup but also demonstrates how spotless his record is. After his successes in the first two UCI World Cup races the captain of Team Beobank-Corendon riding his STEVENS Super Prestige – painted in a special World Cup design - again was the fastest and superior rider. Or rather the rider most capable of handling the course made tricky by the dunes of the Belgian coast.

On the very sandy course he delivered a flawless performance. From the start he set a very fast pace to get to the front that only World Champion Wout van der Aert could follow. In the second lap the Dutch Champion also dropped van Aert simply by better negotiating the sandy sections.

Wout van Aert continued to ride in the first chase group together with Lars van der Haar and Laurens Sweeck (ERA-Circus). In the penultimate lap van Aert had to stop at the mechanics’ pit to get a flat tire fixed which secured second place for Lars van der Haar (39 seconds behind van der Poel) in front of van Aert (50 seconds behind) and Laurens Sweeck in fourth – all on STEVENS Super Prestige.

His brother David van der Poel comes in a strong fifth in Koksijde other riders on STEVENS Super Prestige were Philipp Walsleben (Beobank-Corendon) in 15th, Diether Sweeck (ERA-Circus) in 16th, and Wietse Bosmans (ERA-Circus) in 18th.
See the full race on the UCI Youtube channel.

Super Prestige Race On Saturday In Boom
His win in Koksijde is already his ninth of the season (last season Mathieu van der Poel raced to 21 victories in total) and confirms that his fourth place from the day before at the Super Prestige Race in Boom was the result of a crash. It was the first race in which the Dutch National Champion did not at least make the podium.

In the third lap he was in the lead when he slipped in a curve and crashed into a barrier with his shoulder. From position 20 he fought back through the peloton despite Wout van Aert having increased the tempo. In the penultimate lap van der Poel was almost back in third place when he suffered problems with his chain. Wout van Aert wins in front of Laurens Sweeck und Lars van der Haar.