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Who else? Mathieu van der Poel finished 2023 with a perfect 7 out of 7. There was never a fight between the G3 in Hulst. Tom Pidcock (25th) crashed in the first corner, Wout van Aert (5th) had no chance after an equipment defect. Van der Poel ended up winning for the Baloise-Trek Lions men, but was caught in a spitting incident in the final round.
The battle between the Big Three was over before it even began.
This time – initially – not because of an overpowering Mathieu van der Poel, but because of the bad luck of his two main competitors.
In the first corner of the World Cup Cross in Hulst, Tom Pidcock immediately crashed after flirting with Cameron Mason. He then also had to walk to the equipment station. And not much later, Wout van Aert suffered the same fate: he too was completely set back by a fall and the associated equipment failure.
And to make matters worse, World Championship leader Eli Iserbyt also gave up.
Van der Poel himself flirted with the sets twice in the hectic opening phase in Hulst – mainly due to a maneuver by his predecessor – and then decided for a new solo start for safety reasons.
After a quarter of an hour, the Dutchman seemed to be on his way to his seventh win of the season without any problems, but there was another blemish in the final lap. He spat at some bogeymen in the audience.
Ultimately, it turned out that Van Aert had a great day. Pidcock didn’t get further than 25th place, but after a strong comeback, our compatriot took a respectable fifth place in the slalom, only the trio of Baloise Trek-Lions Nieuwenhuis (2nd), Van der Haar (3rd) and Ronhaar (4.). ) he also had to tolerate.
Joris Nieuwenhuis (2nd): “In the final it was everyone for themselves. Especially because we are close to each other in the rankings. If that wasn’t the case, we can always see if we can help each other, but for now.” “No. This shows once again that we get along well with the team. We don’t have a single breakaway, but all of our riders are doing great.”
Lars van der Haar (3rd): “We didn’t discuss among ourselves who should win. Ronhaar is in second place in the World Cup rankings, but the chance that we can still dethrone Iserbyt is very slim. The score is already as follows. It is sad that the gap seems unbridgeable. That’s why we turned it into a big fight and competition among ourselves.”
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