Cycle cross: Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon – Circus) has won a cyclo cross race 35 times in a row. That ended today at the Hotondcross in Ronse. In difficult conditions in deep mud, the world champion was surprisingly clearly beaten by winner Toon Aerts (Telenet – Baloise) and second-placed Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen – Bingoal).
Aerts pulled away on the second of six laps
After 35 victories in a row, Mathieu van der Poel had to settle for third place at the Hotondcross on Saturday. Victory went to Toon Aerts (Telenet – Baloise) ahead of Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen – Bingoal). Mathieu van der Poel was only third, more than two minutes behind. The reason given by the Dutchman was that he had trained hard in a training camp the previous days. Nevertheless, he was able to recognize the strong performance of the Belgians.
Mathieu van der Poel:
“Of course I came here to win. But it doesn't always work. If I was at 100 percent I should be able to race against him. But I guess it wasn't me. I actually came out of camp quite well, but it just wasn't enough to win. It was a difficult race, but if you're not quite there physically, you make more mistakes. And I realized pretty quickly that I couldn't keep up with the pace. You can't always win. But hopefully we can start a new series now.”
🏆 Toon Aerts wins the Soudal Hotondcross and makes one one aan one period of 408 days in the middle of nowhere for Mathieu van der Poel.
🥇 Toon Aerts
🥈 Eli Iserbyt
🥉 Mathieu van der Poel#Hotondcross #DVV Trofee pic.twitter.com/FLo4TDvxvA— DVV Trofee (@DVVtrofee) December 14, 2019