The Big Three continued their battle after the epic, muddy UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Gavere.
This time, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Deceuninck) set up with a two-man time trial, quickly distancing the field on lap one, with the others left in their wake.
The rest of the race may not have been exciting, but was filled with anticipation of inevitable fireworks as two of the Big Three rode together, trading pulls, and setting up for a thrilling finale
It came down to the last lap, with Van der Poel attacking into the woods, gapping Van Aert, but then had to discount on a final climb, letting Van Aert by and setting up for a man-to-man sprint to delight the fans.
See the final lap:
Could we see a replay of the 2020 Tour of Flanders sprint? This time Van Aert led it out, and while the two sprinted full out for a few seconds, Van der Poel unclipped his foot and almost crashed.
His chance of victory came crashing down, and Van Aert was victorious again on the motorsports tarmac. Van Aert took this lead and sprinted to the finish.
The battle. The sportmanship. The win.
Picture perfect. 👌🏼🤩 pic.twitter.com/qND3MN5laD— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) December 27, 2022
Van der Poel finished second after a close battle with van Aert. As promised after Val di Sole, van der Poel came out packing heat.
What a superb ride by Ceylin Alvarado which lead to her victory today at @SuperprestigeCX in Heusden-Zolder!
@mathieuvanderpoel was very close to winning as well, finishing second after a very impressive race.🥈
Tomorrow we will continue the series of Christmas CX races! 🔜 pic.twitter.com/rUFrHI37Q6
— Alpecin-Deceuninck Cycling Team (@AlpecinDCK) December 27, 2022
Lars van der Haar (Baloise Trek Lions) managed to stay ahead of Tom Pidcock and kept him off the podium.
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Shoutouts to the North Americans. Curtis White (Steve Tilford Foundation) led home eight North Americans in 32nd.
Five Americans attended the race.
- Curtis White came in 32nd.
- Brannan Fix got 35th.
- Andrew Dillman finished 54th.
- Casey Hildebrandt finished 70th.
- Lucas Stierwalt did not finish.
Three Canadians attended the race.
- Alexander Woodford got 62th.
- Evan Russell followed right after at 63rd.
- Cody Scott finished 73rd.
See the full results below.
2022 Superprestige Heusden-Zolder Results - Elite Men
| Position | Name | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VAN AERT Wout | 1:02:30 | |
| 2 | VAN DER POEL Mathieu | ALPECIN - DECEUNINCK | 0:06 |
| 3 | VAN DER HAAR Lars | BALOISE TREK LIONS | 0:16 |
| 4 | PIDCOCK Tom | 0:20 | |
| 5 | VANTHOURENHOUT Michael | PAUWELS SAUZEN - BINGOAL | 1:05 |
| 6 | NIEUWENHUIS Joris | BALOISE TREK LIONS | 1:19 |
| 7 | HERMANS Quinten | TORMANS CYCLO CROSS TEAM | 1:20 |
| 8 | SWEECK Laurens | CRELAN - FRISTADS | 1:24 |
| 9 | KUHN Kevin | TORMANS CYCLO CROSS TEAM | 1:56 |
| 10 | VANDEPUTTE Niels | ALPECIN - DECEUNINCK | 1:57 |
| 11 | ISERBYT Eli | PAUWELS SAUZEN - BINGOAL | 1:58 |
| 12 | VANDEBOSCH Toon | ALPECIN - DECEUNINCK | ' |
| 13 | SOETE Daan | DESCHACHT - HENS - MAES | 2:03 |
| 14 | KIELICH Timo | CRELAN - FRISTADS | 2:44 |
| 15 | ORTS LLORET Felipe | 2:48 | |
| 16 | FERDINANDE Anton | DESCHACHT - HENS - MAES | 2:51 |
| 17 | DEL GROSSO Tibor | 2:52 | |
| 18 | DOCKX Aaron | CRELAN - FRISTADS | 3:03 |
| 19 | VENTURINI Clément | 3:10 | |
| 20 | HUYBS Ward | BALOISE TREK LIONS | 3:18 |
| 21 | KAMP Ryan | PAUWELS SAUZEN - BINGOAL | 3:24 |
| 22 | BAERS Arne | TORMANS CYCLO CROSS TEAM | 3:25 |
| 23 | VAN LIEROP Danny | 3:35 | |
| 24 | LILLO Dario | DESCHACHT - HENS - MAES | ' |
| 25 | BELMANS Lennert | CRELAN - FRISTADS | 3:39 |
| 26 | VAN DER POEL David | ALPECIN - DECEUNINCK | 3:40 |
| 27 | STYBAR Zdenek | 3:44 | |
| 28 | VERMOOTE Jelle | TORMANS CYCLO CROSS TEAM | 4:30 |
| 29 | HORNY Clément | 4:32 | |
| 30 | RIMAN Jakub | 4:38 | |
| 31 | AERTS Thijs | BALOISE TREK LIONS | 4:59 |
| 32 | WHITE Curtis | 5:06 | |
| 33 | DE VET Sander | 5:17 | |
| 34 | CORTJENS Ryan | ALPECIN - DECEUNINCK | 5:34 |
| 35 | FIX Brannan | 5:55 | |
| 36 | VANDERLINDEN Lukas | PAUWELS SAUZEN - BINGOAL | 6:06 |
| 37 | GROENEN Klaas | 6:11 | |
| 38 | SOMMER Lars | HEIZOMAT RADTEAM P/B KLOSTER KITCHEN | 6:22 |
| 39 | BEKAERT Yentl | BALOISE TREK LIONS | 6:25 |
| 40 | THOMAS Théo | SEBMOTOBIKES CX TEAM | 6:55 |
| 41 | GROSLAMBERT Martin | ||
| 42 | SIEMONS Julian | ||
| 43 | VERHEYEN Thomas | ||
| 44 | VAN DIJKE Koen | ||
| 45 | WYLLIE Simon | TEAM SPECTRA WIGGLE P/B VITUS | |
| 46 | HAMM Florian | ||
| 47 | JOT Hugo | ARDENNES CROSS TEAM GECIBAT | |
| 48 | DORIGONI Jakob | ||
| 49 | JOT Matéo | ARDENNES CROSS TEAM GECIBAT | |
| 50 | VERMEERSCH Florian | ||
| 51 | PAHLKE Jasper Levi | HEIZOMAT RADTEAM P/B KLOSTER KITCHEN | |
| 52 | HARTER Luca | ||
| 53 | VRACHTEN Arne | ||
| 54 | DILLMAN Andrew | ||
| 55 | GRAS Yan | PODIOCOM CX | |
| 56 | KOCKELMANN Raphaël | ||
| 57 | HÄHNEL Frederik | ||
| 58 | KUSCHLA Silas | ||
| 59 | JUNQUERA SAN MILLAN Mario | UNICAJA BANCO-GIJON | |
| 60 | JØRGENSEN Mikkel | ||
| 61 | UPTEGROVE Pete | ||
| 62 | WOODFORD Alexander | ||
| 63 | RUSSELL Evan | ||
| 64 | TRAN VAN Antoine | ALBI VELO SPORT LEROY MERLIN TEAM CROSS | |
| 65 | GASSNER Michael | ||
| 66 | OPPIZZI Matteo | ||
| 67 | PASQUET Audric | ALBI VELO SPORT LEROY MERLIN TEAM CROSS | |
| 68 | LAVIGNAC Matthieu | ALBI VELO SPORT LEROY MERLIN TEAM CROSS | |
| 69 | DANIEL Thibault | TEAM FIMA - RDV BIKESHOP ALIAN | |
| 70 | HILDEBRANDT Casey | ||
| 71 | HEIGL Philipp | ||
| 72 | ANANIE Ugo | ||
| 73 | SCOTT Cody | ||
| 74 | NOLAN Sean | ||
| 75 | LEMBRECHTS Ruben | ||
| 76 | BAGOU Guillaume | TEAM MOTRIO SAFIR GANOVA | |
| 77 | JAMES Steven | HOPE FACTORY RACING | |
| 78 | NYSTROM SPENCER Felipe Timoteo | ||
| 79 | PAINS Xavier | TEAM FIMA - RDV BIKESHOP ALIAN | |
| 80 | GONZALEZ SANCHEZ Daniel | UNICAJA BANCO-GIJON | |
| DNF | PAUWELS Pieter | PAUWELS SAUZEN - BINGOAL | |
| DNF | STIERWALT Lucas | ||
| DNF | RODRIGUEZ NOVOA Miguel |
