The words of Van der Poel and Van Aert after yesterday’s race, amid punctures, conditions, and upcoming races

The 200th showdown between Van der Poel and Van Aert, as well as the first of the season, saw the Dutchman dominate from start to finish. The world champion managed to make the difference in the early laps and then rode solo to the finish.

It was a tougher race for the Belgian, who, it must be said, barely prepared at all for this cyclocross season. Both riders suffered a puncture, although for Van der Poel it was not an issue given the gap he had built earlier. A different story for Van Aert, who lost a podium finish as a result and came home seventh.

These are the words of the two protagonists after the race, reported by Spaziociclismo:

VAN DER POEL – “It was a good race. I felt much better compared to last week and my legs were also in good shape. During the week I had already noticed that I felt much fresher compared to the race in Namur, so I’m very happy to have won today. The plan was to quickly make a selection.

Last week I preferred to stay on the wheel, while this time I wanted to do my own thing. When I pushed on, I quickly found my rhythm. Today I was definitely not the best on the sand, I made many mistakes. I felt the puncture immediately on the rim; there was still a long way to go to the second technical zone, but fortunately by then I had already made the selection.

Koksijde is one of my favorite races, while Hofstade is a cyclocross race I used to watch as a kid. So it’s nice to race there once.”

Don’t miss: Van Aert vs Van der Poel – all the races in which they will face each other

VAN AERT – “I’m quite tired. It was hard, but overall I felt good. I had a good chance to finish on the podium, but the puncture ruined it. At a certain point I had a bit of an advantage over the others fighting for the podium and I felt I was going well. My legs are where I hoped they would be, but my technique left quite a lot to be desired.

I hope to be able to improve it in the upcoming races. At the start I was counting on finding space on the outside of the first corner and I managed to do that, but from there I found myself short of oxygen. Then, when Van der Poel accelerated, my mind was saying ‘try to follow him’, but my legs just couldn’t. Things certainly didn’t get any better as the kilometers went by.

But it was a good race to start with. These efforts will help me grow, because so far I haven’t trained specifically for these kinds of efforts.”

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