February 4/24 9:07 am - Mathieu van der Poel Wins 6th Elite CX Title

Posted by Editoress on 02/4/24
 

Absent his main competition, Dutch superstar Mathieu van der poel won his sixth Elite men's cyclo-cross world title on Sunday at Tabor, Czechia. Joris Nieuwenhuis made it a 1-2 for the Dutch, while Michael Vanthourenhout stopped a Dutch sweep and salvaged some Belgian pride by taking the bronze medal. The two Canadians - Evan Russell and Tyler Clark - were pulled. along with numerous other riders as van der Poel tore through the field.

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Van der Poel's regular rivals, Tom Pidcock (GBr) and Wout van Art (Bel) opted to skip the Worlds as they prepare for their Road seasons, leaving van der Poel to effectively race against himself. He attacked out of the start, and was six seconds clear of chaser Nieuwenhuis within a kilometre. He continued to pour on the effort for the first four laps of the six lap race to establish a 45 second-plus gap, before backing off for the last two laps.

Nieuwenhuis rode a steady, consistent race, and only came under pressure on Lap 5, when Vanthourenhout came within 12 seconds after attacking Pim Ronhaar (Ned) to establish himself alone in third. That was as close as the Belgian rider would get, as Nieuwenhuis upped his pace to reestablish a 29 second gap by the finish.

Legendary Czech rider Zdenek Stybar, who won the first of his three elite world titles here in 2010, rode the final race of his career, finishing 31st as he was feted around the circuit every lap.