An estimated 50,000 fans came to see Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert battle it out in the Elite Men’s race on Sunday. Van der Poel quickly took the lead in the first lap and by the start of the second lap he was off and running with Van Aert in tow. The field behind never had a chance as Van der Poel and Van Aert flew through the race course. Event the drone filming the wooded back section of the course had difficulties in keeping up with the two riders.
By lap 8 it became clear that neither rider was going to shake the other and that the race was going to come down to a sprint. Many predicted Van der Poel would use the barriers in the last half of the course to force a gap on Van Aert, but when the barriers came, Van der Poel held back and allowed Van Aert to take the lead. On the final straightaway, Van Aert made the mistake of waiting for Van der Poel to come around and missed the chance to execute a sprint of any substance.
Van der Poel, on his part, was much more tactical than in previous races against Van Aert. By playing it cool and avoiding the urge to attack, Van der Poel was able to manoveur Van Aert into the lead and force a short sprint that Van Aert could not respond to.
Third place podium spot was taken by Eli Iserbyt (Belgium), who put in one of his best performances this season since being plagued by injuries in November.
