Mathieu Van Der Poel immediately dictated the law in the World Cup stage in Hulst: Tom Pidcock can do nothing as he tries to keep up with the Dutchman's pace but then, 2 laps from the end, he is the victim of a rear wheel failure. Forfait by Van Aert who has declared that he is postponing his cyclocross debut, to better recover from the road season, with a focus on the world championship.
Technical race as always due to the muddy weather conditions: light rain and heavy track. Usual rocket start for Van Der Haar who together with Iserbyt face the first lap at full speed. In the top 10 we find both Pidcock and Van Der Poel, with Pidock not brilliant in the early stages of the race, perhaps due to yesterday's victory. But a few minutes of the race are enough to see Van Der Poel give some important revs but, thanks to many mistakes and crashes, he is unable to maintain the very first positions.
As mentioned, in the first 2 laps Mathieu Van Der Poel made a lot of mistakes and Pidcock took advantage of it by taking the lead and giving the race a crazy pace. In the meantime Van Der Poel removes some rust and begins the comeback by catching Pidcock, about halfway through the race, and overtaking him, also taking advantage of an uphill mistake by the British. Worth mentioning is the great race of Laurens Sweeck who always remains within sight of the 2 phenomena.
Van Der Poel begins to put fast laps on the plate with Pidcock always remaining about 10 seconds behind, but failing to close. During the last lap the crime: bad luck for Tom Pidcock who breaks the rear wheel (bending it). The box is far away and Pidcock retires. From the video it seems that the break occurred during a descent and then, following this break, Pidcock hit a stake losing control of the bike.
Thus Van Der Poel flies towards victory: first cyclo-cross race and immediately on target. 2nd place for Laurens Sweeck just 15″ behind the Dutchman: this performance earned him the cup overall leader jersey. Eli ISerbyt closes the podium, author of an amazing race finale after many mistakes made in the middle of the race.
First Italian Joel Bertolini (Selle Italia Guerciotti) which finishes in 33rd place. To follow the Cyclo-cross World Cup, subscribe to Eurosport Player.
MEN'S ELITE RANKING
GENERAL CUP CLASSIFICATION
FEMALE ELITE RANKING
| 1 |  PIETERSE Puck | ALPECIN - DECEUNINCK | 46:31 |
| 2 | VAN EMPEL Fem | PAUWELS SAUZEN - BINGOAL | 0:42 |
| 3 | VAN ANROOIJ Shirin | BALOISE TREK LIONS | 1:47 |
| 4 | ALVARADO Ceylin Del Carmen | ALPECIN - DECEUNINCK | 2:06 |
| 5 | BRAND Lucinda | BALOISE TREK LIONS | 2:12 |
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