Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) might have brought his new Lamborghini to the tractor pull of a UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Gavere but the world champion wasn't spinning his wheels as he motored to yet another solo triumph.
Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) extended his lead in the UCI World Cup, taking a strong second place, while European champion Thibau Nys (Baloise Trek) rallied to claim third.
"It was getting harder and harder every lap," Van der Poel said. "I was also not focussed enough so I was starting to make a lot of mistakes. I was getting a bit annoyed at myself, so I was happy to cross the finish line."
While the skies held off on any rain, the course in Gavere was thick with sticky mud that had been churned into a mass of deep ruts by the time the elite men took to the course.
The conditions required considerable power as well as finesse for riders to remain upright.
"It's always a hard race. I wanted to try and win as good as possible without the gap being too big. Michael was quite strong in the back so made me push it to the finish line," Van der Poel said.
Nys claimed the hole shot from the gun and went immediately into the pits to get the cleaner line through the opening section, but his fine strategy came apart when he took his hands off the bars in an off-camber section to clear mud from his front wheel and promptly crashed.
He recovered to stay with Van der Poel and Vanthourenhout through the second lap, where Ronhaar made too many mistakes and faded from view.
Much like Van der Poel has in just about every cyclocross race he's completed over the past two years, the Dutchman was untouchable by his rivals.
This time, however, Van der Poel graciously waited until his companions -Vanthourenhout, Nys and Pim Ronhaar (Baloise Trek) - began to show fatigue before he powered away.
Van der Poel turned in the fastest lap of the race, shaving a good 20 seconds off the previous lap time to establish an unassailable gap.
Vanthourenhout remained the strongest, chasing at 20, then 30, then 40 seconds by lap 5. But the fatigue of a heavy 'cross race began to show as Van der Poel made a few mistakes on the penultimate lap, and the Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal rider clawed the gap back to 25 seconds.
Meanwhile, Nys' struggles continued and he was caught and passed by Lars van der Haar (Baloise-Trek) coming into the last lap, but he rallied to regain the podium spot in the dying moments of the race.
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