Mathieu van der Poel has achieved what no cyclist before him has achieved. In the same year he not only won the cross-country championship, but also the world championship in road racing. The 28-year-old Dutchman, who also won the classic Paris-Roubaix in the spring, won the coveted rainbow jersey in Glasgow on Sunday despite a fall at the end of the penultimate lap allowed to race. “It means everything to me. That was one of my big goals and completes my career,” said van der Poel: “That was my most important win. I can’t wait to ride in the rainbow jersey for a year.”
Van der Poel and the other 194 drivers who started at this World Championship initially had to take an involuntary break of almost an hour. The reason was a protest action on the route after around 80 kilometers. A group of demonstrators had blocked a narrow road on a climb, first bringing a nine-man breakaway to a standstill and then six and a half minutes later bringing the large field to a standstill. The interruption lasted almost an hour. The racers stretched their legs as best they could before getting back in the saddle and chasing the title. The nine-man lead started, the rest followed at a distance of 6:30 minutes.
The pace was high right from the start and things really got down to business. As seen at the Tour de France in July, modern cycling has evolved in a direction where the best riders rarely take a breather. There used to be phases of racing at World Championships, especially over such miserably long distances as now in Glasgow with 271 kilometers, in which the favorites let a few outliers cycle ahead in a controlled manner and otherwise made themselves comfortable in the large field. Now, however, high pressure on the pedals is required at all times. So this world championship on the 14.3 kilometer circuit was an increasingly brutal elimination race. Again and again one of the favorites pushed the pace.
Van der Poel turns up the heat
With 90 kilometers to go, it was van der Poel who turned up the heat for the first time, and that’s how it went on and on. No break, no breather for everyone who thought they had a chance of fighting for the world title in the end. In order to make everything even more difficult than it already was, the weather gods sent a few more rain showers, in which the Italian Alberto Bettiol tried his hand as a soloist, there were still around 50 kilometers to drive. Behind at a distance of 20, sometimes 30 seconds followed the big names: the two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogacar from Slovenia, van der Poel, the Dane Mads Pedersen and the Belgian Wout van Aert. The Belgian defending champion Remco Evenepoel was no longer there, he too had run out of strength.
Thus, Belgium’s hopes had passed to van Aert, the second captain on whom the strongest national team in the field had bet. Captain number three, Jasper Philipsen, had to bury all hopes early on in view of the enormous pace that he would have been the Belgian trump card in a bunch sprint. But this was no track and no course for a sprinter. This was a track and course for fast-paced classic drivers, for the really tough guys.
There were still 22 kilometers to go when the foursome around Pogacar caught up with runaway Bettiol at the most difficult point, a 14.5 percent steep ramp. Van der Poel used this moment for a decisive attack. He quickly put 30 seconds between himself and his now three pursuers. And then the moment of shock. Van der Poel, who already looked like the certain winner, fell on a wet road in a curve. He got to his feet, and with bleeding wounds on his hands and knees and a tattered jersey, he rode on, the bike still intact, only one of the two clipless pedals was gone.
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Van der Poel had lost his pedal on one side, but the three competitors in the back, who had already given up, did not find out about his mishap without radio contact to the sports directors, who are forbidden at world championships, and did not get closer to him . On the contrary. Van der Poel increased his lead second by second. In the end he was about a minute and a half ahead. For the three behind him it was all about the places on the podium. The first losers were Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogacar, who won the sprint for third place against Mads Pedersen. The German John Degenkolb finished 16th.