Tabor: The men's elite race closed the cyclocross world championships in Tabor. With slightly thawed ground conditions, Mathieu van der Poel was not able to strike today; Even this season's serial winner, Wout van Aert, couldn't do anything about it and had to settle for second place. Lars van der Haar completed the podium as third.
After a quick start, the two 20-year-old van der Poel and van Aert quickly took the lead. Mathieu in particular tried to break away from the start. In the first lap, the competition was able to keep up, but when van Aert fell twice in the second lap, van der Poel was able to pull away and quickly put about 10 seconds between himself and his pursuers around Lars van der Haar and Kevin Pauwels. At that time the young Belgian van Aert fell back to within 45 seconds.
At the front, Mathieu did his laps alone. Even when his Dutch teammate van der Haar tried to close the gap, the only 20-year-old van der Poel stayed calm and was able to keep his lead constant. Behind him, van Aert got a second breath three laps before the end and ran into Lars van der Haar again on the last lap. While Mathieu van der Poel was already celebrating as the youngest elite world champion of all time, there was a sprint final behind him, with van der Aert having the better end.
Philipp Walsleben, Marcel Meisen, Sascha Weber and Ole Quast were stopped in the dense crowd in the first lap. Without the blockades, Marcel Meisen and Philipp Walsleben might have been able to get involved in the fight for a medal. So two strong results from the German champion in 8th place and Philipp Walsleben in 9th place remained. Unfortunately, the other two starters could not finish the race.
(source: sporza.be)