The duel of the three cyclocross tenors was left in the hands of Mathieu van der Poel. The world champion had a difficult start at the World Cup in Antwerpen, but he quickly recovered and immediately distanced himself from his rivals.
The places of honor were completed by the Belgians Wout van Aert 2nd and Eli Iserbyt 3rd. While the British Tom Pidcock had to settle for 8th place.
The organization was honored to welcome the Big Three. However, two of the three favorites did not have the best of starts. Van der Poel had a mechanical problem at the start and Pidcock crashed after the first corner. Due to that crash, Van der Poel also lost valuable time.
During the first lap Van Aert recovered, quickly reaching tenth place. Meanwhile, Ryan Kamp tried to increase his lead at the top, but was soon caught by overall leader Eli Iserbyt and took over at the head of the race.
On the second lap, Van der Poel continued his impressive rise. He moved up to second place just before crossing the finish line. Then Iserbyt made a mistake, and the world champion took advantage of it to pass him. From then on Van der Poel did not let go of the lead.
In the third lap, the Dutchman was sixteen seconds ahead of the quintet formed by Pim Ronhaar, Vanthourenhout, Iserbyt, Nieuwenhuis and Van Aert. Pidcock was in eleventh place, two places behind Thibau Nys.
In the following laps Van der Poel would extend the difference to more than a minute. So he secured victory from the start, the third in a row in his short cyclo-cross season, while behind the Dutchman a battle for second place raged.
On the last lap, Van Aert made a small gap over Iserbyt, who did not give up: he held on for several minutes. Still, Van Aert stayed ahead of him, so the Jumbo-Visma rider finished second, just like on Friday. Third place went to the overall leader, Eli Iserbyt.
UCI World Cup Antwerpen (CDM)
Resultados Antwerpen
1 | Mathieu van der Poel | Alpecin – Deceuninck | 1:00:20 |
2 | Wout van Aert | Jumbo-Visma | 0:29 |
3 | Eli Iserbyt | Pauwels Sauzen – Bingoal | 0:37 |
4 | Laurens Sweeck | Crelan – Corendon | 0:43 |
5 | Joris Nieuwenhuis | Baloise Trek Lions | 0:46 |
6 | Lars van der Haar | Baloise Trek Lions | 1:00 |
7 | Niels Vandeputte | Alpecin – Deceuninck | 1:07 |
8 | Tom Pidcock | INEOS Grenadiers | 1:14 |
9 | Thibau Nys | Baloise Trek Lions | 1:22 |
10 | Toon Vandebosch | Crelan – Corendon | 1:26 |
Source: Revista Mundo Ciclístico