MATHIEU VAN DER POEL OR WOUT VAN AERT WILL BECOME WORLD CHAMPION IN OOSTENDE ON SUNDAY. THE GAP WITH THE REST IS HUGE. (Feature photo courtesy of Belga)
(Overijse World Cup report of the final round) In the opening lap, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel immediately drove away from the competition. WB leader Van Aert set the pace, world champion Van der Poel followed in the wheel, but clearly declined. After a flat tire at a bad time for Van der Poel, Van Aert suddenly had twenty seconds ahead of his rival. The race certainly seemed halfway through, but the Dutchman found his second breath and came back to six seconds behind the apparently unleashed Belgian. A deliberate tactic of the front runner? Because after a new gear from Van Aert and a few slips from the otherwise confident Van der Poel, the lead suddenly went back to thirty seconds in Van Aert’s favor. In the final lap, Van Aert no longer ran into problems, also because Van der Poel let things go a bit. He wins for the first time in Overijse and immediately pocketed the World Cup for the third time
1 Wout van Aert in 1u05’57”
2 Mathieu van der Poel +1’03”
3 Thomas Pidcock +2’07”
4 Michael Vanthourenhout +2’24”
5 Toon Aerts +2’49”
6 Lars van der Haar +3’26”
7 Laurens Sweeck +3’35”
8 Corné van Kessel +3’41”
9 Quinten Hermans +3’57”
10 Gianni Vermeersch +4’12”
Final standings World Cup 2020-2021: 1.Wout van Aert 165 points
2.Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) 140
3.Michael Vanthourenhout 128
4.Toon Aerts 108
5.Quinten Hermans 95
6.Corné van Kessel (Ned) 91
7.Tom Pidcock (GBr) 84
8.Lars van der Haar (Ned) 81
9.Laurens Sweeck 77
10.Kevin Kuhn (Zwi) 63
11.Gianni Vermeersch 60
12.Thijs Aerts 54
13.Daan Soete 53
14.Ryan Kamp (Ned) 53
15.Joris Nieuwenhuis (Ned) 47
16.Pim Ronhaar (Ned) 44
17.Tim Merlier 32
18.Eli Iserbyt 30
19.Timo Kielich 29
20.Ben Turner (GBr) 24
