Mathieu van der Poel Stays Undefeated at 2016 Hansgrohe Superprestige in Ruddervoorde

The third stop of the 2016 Hansgrohe Superprestige series was Sunday at Ruddervoorde outside of Bruges, Belgium. After a two-race hiatus from their increasingly legendary two-man battles, Matthieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) and Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice) were back on their competitive form at the slick, technical circuit at Ruddervoorde. Although not as beautiful as some of the Van der Poel—Van Aert battles, the two riders still gave fans an early-November cyclocross treat. Van der Poel was able to hold off Van Aert—and at times, himself—to stay perfect in the 2016 Superprestige series with a victory at the circuit outside Bruges.

Last year’s cyclocross circuit at Ruddervoorde was described by Sven as a “maze.” This year’s edition featured a more open design, with the technical quotient upped by several slick, punchy uphills and one particularly rough downhill onto a bridge over a drainage canal after a run-up. The latter portion of the track also featured a downhill “mini-Zonhaven” sandpit with a deceptively-tough uphill finish. In the women’s race, Sophie de Boer was superior both physically and technically in her dominating performance; for much of the men’s race, it appeared that Van der Poel was the stronger physical rider, while Wout Van Aert was more technically dialed in.

After Tuesday’s race at Koppenberg, Wout Van Aert said that it was the first time he felt like himself all season. This interview comment seemed to be a scary warning to his competitors, as he started the race off strong after Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alcepin) took the holeshot. Matthieu van der Poel had a much stronger start to the race than he did on Tuesday when Van Aert buried him with an early attack, and made his way into the lead group with Van Aert, and interloper Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux-Napolean Games).

By the completion of the second lap, Van der Poel and Van Aert had separated from the pack and, as is common, it was game on between the two.

After withstanding Van Aert’s early pace, Van der Poel seemed determined to show that his legs were feeling good on Sunday. He rode hard at the front at through the third lap and created a sizeable gap to the chase group of Kevin Pauwels (Marlux-Napolean Games), Laurens Sweeck (ERA Circus), Vanthourenhout, van der Haar, and Toon Aerts (Telenet Fidea Lions).

.@LaurensSweeck als vijfde het veld in! @SuperprestigeCX Ruddervoorde! #cyclocross pic.twitter.com/LjQC6AE0DG

— ERA-Circus (@ERA_Circus) November 6, 2016

Since battling with Van Aert was apparently not enough of a challenge, van der Poel decided that he should turn up the difficulty setting for the race by making a series of bobbles that cost him his emerging lead. Van der Poel was seemingly jinxed during the afternoon by a corner of the course near the RDB Pallets truck, where a bobble on a downhill corner allowed Van Aert to erase the lead van der Poel had worked hard to open up.

The race’s winning move came about forty minutes into the race at the start of the sixth lap when Van der Poel demonstrated that when engaged in a tight cyclocross battle, it is essential to seize on the smallest opportunity. Van Aert appeared to have a small issue with his bike and was forced to go to the pit at the start of the sixth lap. Van der Poel took advantage of the opportunity to put in an attack that staked him out to a four second lead that he extended to six at the end of the lap despite getting caught up on the course barrier at the, again, RDB Pallet corner.

With Van der Poel clearly having the stronger legs on the course, Van Aert’s last opportunity to get back in the race was when Van der Poel pulled yet another “Ay Yay Yay” at the start of the 7^th lap when he washed out on a corner early in the lap. However, the World Champion was unable to close the gap, and was soon befallen by a disaster of his own when he dropped his chain on the ultimate lap right before the sketchy drainage canal downhill.

Este es el momento de la avería de @WoutvanAert #superprestige #Ruddervoorde pic.twitter.com/8GKxQTC1Yh

— Nicolás Van Looy (@Vanlooyalfas) November 6, 2016

Van Aert’s mechanical allowed Van der Poel to cruise home with a comfortable 29 second victory for his third straight Hansgrohe Superprestige victory. Despite the chain hiccup, Van Aert was able to get his bike rolling again and took home his third straight Superprestige second-place finish.

As has been the case at many of the European races this year, there is the battle between Wout Van Aert and Matthieu van der Poel, and then there is the battle for third. When we last left the chase group, a congregation of five riders and another two—David van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) and Jens Adams (Crelan-Vastgoedservice)—in chase two had emerged. Halfway through the race, Laurens Sweeck seemed determined to emerge from the chase and perhaps close the gap to the two heads of state at the front of the race.

Sweeck closed to within just 13 seconds of the leaders after the end of the fifth lap with a full-throttled attack away from the others. That would be as close as the broad-shouldered Belgian would get, but his consolation prize for the strong push midway through the race was his third straight third-place Hansgrohe Superprestige podium. Kevin Pauwels finished fourth (1’08”) and Jens Adams bridged from chase two to take home fifth place (1’22”).

The déjà vu podium of Van der Poel, Van Aert, and Sweeck makes tallying the overall Hansgrohe Superprestige standings up pretty straightforward and provides a good opportunity for the youngest cyclocross fans to practice their multiplication tables (our resident favorite teacher-rider Jolien Verscheren would be proud). Van der Poel sits in first with 45 points, Van Aert in second with 42, and Sweeck in third with 39.

In the U23 Men’s race, Quinten Hermans (Telenet Fidea Lions) took a close victory over 2016 World Champion Eli Iserbyt, while Toon Vandebosch took the Junior men’s race with a dominant ride. Full Junior and U23 men’s results below.

The next race of the Hansgrohe Superprestige will be next Sunday, November 13, at Gavere. The race will be the 39^th running of the event. Wout Van Aert will look to repeat his title after defeating some rider named Sven Nys in 2015, and Sanne Cant will look for redemption after this Sunday and a repeat of her title from last year.

See our full photo gallery from the 2016 Superprestige Ruddervoorde men’s race here. Full results below.

2016 Hansgrohe Superprestige Ruddervoorde Results - Elite Men

Rank	Name	Nat.	Age*	Result	Pts
1	Mathieu VAN DER POEL	NED	22	1:05:18	80
2	Wout VAN AERT	BEL	23	1:05:47	60
3	Laurens SWEECK	BEL	24	1:06:12	40
4	Kevin PAUWELS	BEL	33	1:06:27	30
5	Jens ADAMS	BEL	25	1:06:40	25
6	Toon AERTS	BEL	24	1:07:10	20
7	David VAN DER POEL	NED	25	1:07:18	17
8	Tim MERLIER	BEL	25	1:07:25	15
9	Klaas VANTORNOUT	BEL	35	1:07:29	12
10	Dieter VANTHOURENHOUT	BEL	32	1:07:31	10
11	Joeri ADAMS	BEL	28	1:07:34	8
12	Michael BOROS	CZE	25	1:07:45	6
13	Michael VANTHOURENHOUT	BEL	24	1:07:50	4
14	Vincent BAESTAENS	BEL	28	1:07:52	2
15	Jim AERNOUTS	BEL	28	1:07:54	1
16	Gianni VERMEERSCH	BEL	25	1:07:58
17	Stan GODRIE	NED	24	1:08:32
18	Daan HOEYBERGHS	BEL	23	1:08:47
19	Jens VANDEKINDEREN	BEL	24	1:09:09
20	Patrick VAN LEEUWEN	NED	32	1:10:02
21	Braam MERLIER	BEL	23	1:10:04
22	Stijn HUYS	BEL	31	1:10:51
23	Rob PEETERS	BEL	32	1:11:07
24	Kenneth VAN COMPERNOLLE	BEL	29	1:11:28
25	Vinnie BRAET	BEL	26	1:12:17
26	Niels WUBBEN	NED	29	1:12:29
27	Yu TAKENOUCHI	JPN	29
28	Quincy VENS	BEL	31
29	Matthias VAN DE VELDE	BEL	23
30	Glenn KINNING	IRL	34
31	Félix FUENTES	ESP	32
32	Fernando JIMÉNEZ	ESP	38
33	Manuel Martin JIMENEZ	ESP	35

2016 Hansgrohe Superprestige Ruddervoorde Results - U23 Men

Rank	Name	Nat.	Age*	Result	Pts
1	Quinten HERMANS	BEL	22	51:20:00	30
2	Eli ISERBYT	BEL	20	51:35:00	20
3	Joris NIEUWENHUIS	NED	21	52:21:00	15
4	Yannick PEETERS	BEL	21	52:44:00	12
5	Nicolas CLEPPE	BEL	22	52:57:00	10
6	Maik VAN DER HEIJDEN	NED	20	53:11:00	8
7	Thijs AERTS	BEL	21	53:26:00	6
8	Jens DEKKER	NED	19	53:40:00	4
9	Jelle SCHUERMANS	BEL	21	53:49:00	2
10	Sieben WOUTERS	NED	21	53:57:00	1
11	Thomas JOSEPH	BEL	21	53:57:00
12	Kobe GOOSSENS	BEL	21	54:05:00
13	Gosse VAN DER MEER	NED	22	54:22:00
14	Stijn CALUWE	BEL	21	54:33:00
15	Lucas DUBAU	FRA	21	54:39:00
16	Jenko BONNE	BEL	20	54:59:00
17	Joshua DUBAU	FRA	21	55:03:00
18	Jappe JASPERS	BEL	19	55:13:00
19	Niels DERVEAUX	BEL	20	55:14:00
20	Kelvin BAKX	NED	21	55:17:00
21	Richard JANSEN	NED	22	55:19:00
22	Reno BAUTERS	BEL	19	55:32:00
23	Wesley FLOREN	NED	20	55:50:00
24	Jarno LIESSENS	BEL	19	55:52:00
25	Senne De Meyer	BEL	21	55:55:00
26	Koen VAN DIJKE	NED	21	55:56:00
27	Pieter VAN ROOSBROECK	BEL	21	56:07:00
28	Victor VANDEBOSCH	BEL	19	56:14:00
29	Seppe ROMBOUTS	BEL	19	56:22:00
30	Erik BOER	NED	20	56:28:00
31	Gianni SIEBENS	BEL	19	56:30:00
32	Roel VAN DER STEGEN	NED	20	56:30:00
33	Jente TIELEMANS	BEL	19	57:07:00
34	Perry VAN DEN BOS	NED	20	57:18:00
35	Stefano MUSEEUW	BEL	20	58:05:00
36	Mathijs WUYTS	BEL	19	58:40:00
37	Simon HOSTE	BEL	22
38	Liam HELSOCHT	BEL	20
39	Mathias DECLERCK	BEL	21
40	Nick VAN DE KERCKHOVE	BEL	21
41	Martin MIJNTEN	NED	20
42	Niels VANDENBROUCKE	BEL	20
43	Yari CROLLET	BEL	20
44	Stef SERRÉ	BEL	19

2016 Hansgrohe Superprestige Ruddervoorde Results - Junior Men

Rank	Name	Nat.	Age*	Result	Pts
1	Toon VANDEBOSCH	BEL	18	36:50:00	10
2	Jelle CAMPS	BEL	18	37:29:00	6
3	Niels VANDEPUTTE	BEL	17	37:44:00	4
4	Ben TURNER	GBR	18	37:52:00	2
5	Yentl BEKAERT	BEL	18	37:55:00	1
6	Andreas GOEMAN	BEL	18	38:06:00
7	Arno DEBEIR	BEL	18	38:13:00
8	TomᚠKOPECKÝ	CZE	17	38:13:00
9	Arno VAN DEN BROECK	BEL	17	38:23:00
10	Gerben KUYPERS	BEL	17	38:24:00
11	Florian VERMEERSCH	BEL	18	38:31:00
12	Bart ARTZ	NED	17	38:33:00
13	Arne VRACHTEN	BEL	18	38:36:00
14	Hendrik MEES	NED	17	38:59:00
15	Koen VAN HELVOIRT	NED	18	38:59:00
16	Nicolas GUILLEMIN	FRA	18	39:06:00
17	Maxim DEWULF	BEL	17	39:19:00
18	Maxim VAN GILS	BEL	18	39:39:00
19	Jens CLYNHENS	BEL	17	39:45:00
20	Niels VANDERMEULEN	BEL	18	39:46:00
21	Andres VERDONCK	BEL	17	39:48:00
22	Bart HAZEKAMP	NED	17	39:48:00
23	Kyro GEURTS	NED	18	39:48:00
24	Jarno JORDENS	BEL	17	39:52:00
25	Harry YATES	GBR	18	39:53:00
26	Jurgen VAN DEN AARSSEN	NED	17	40:05:00
27	Sander DE VET	BEL	17	40:13:00
28	Ward DESCHEPPER	BEL	18	40:53:00
29	Lars LOOHUIS	NED	17	40:53:00
30	Louis DECOSTER	BEL	17	41:04:00
31	Lars VAN DEN BERGHEN	NED	18	41:07:00
32	Carlo VAN DEN BERG	NED	18	41:20:00
33	Bavo HOUSSIN	BEL	17	41:24:00
34	Seppe BEKAERT	BEL	18	41:26:00
35	Léo ANANIE	FRA	17	42:29:00
36	Maxime COCKX	BEL	17	42:44:00
37	Arne SANTY	BEL	17	42:44:00
38	Harry LEWIS	GBR	18	43:45:00
39	Stijn KALVENHAAR	NED	18	44:09:00
40	Jordan NOLIN	FRA	18	44:15:00
41	Sietse SLABBINCK	BEL	18	44:51:00
42	James SWADLING	GBR	17
43	Jens DEKIEN	BEL	17