This week, Dan Lloyd dives into news that Wout van Aert is set to race at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in northern France next week! This surprise decision wasn’t originally on his race calendar, and he’ll be going head-to-head with Mathieu van der Poel. How close will the battle between the two be? Dan breaks it all down, plus cyclocross results, updates from the Tour Down Under, the road racing season’s first yellow card, and much more!
Eighth for World Champion Tom Pidcock after a slow start
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) returned from a knee and shoulder injury sustained in a crash at the previous day’s Superprestige Boom to secure a solo victory at the UCI World Cup in Antwerp on Sunday.
A highly-anticipated round of the top-tier series saw Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) return to cyclocross with a blistering opening lap. Still, Van der Poel quickly caught and passed his rival, dominating the race to take a solo win.
“Antwerp is a race that I really like, and I think today was also technical, and finally, I felt OK,” Van der Poel said in a post-race interview, noting that he felt a bit sore following the crash in Boom but that it did not affect his race.
“I felt good. I got a good gap and then maintained it, so I’m pretty happy today.”
Photo by Tom Photo Cycling on Unsplash
