Mathieu van der Poel crowned world champion

2023-08-06 17:12:00

The Dutch rider won in Glasgow after a legendary race. Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogacar complete the podium.

By GA with AFP Mathieu van der Poel celebrates his victory. © DAVID PINTENS / BELGA MAG / Belga via AFP Published on 08/06/2023 at 5:12 p.m.

Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel achieved an exceptional performance by winning the title of world champion in road cycling on Sunday. In a thrilling race, he won solo on the Glasgow street circuit. His solo victory testifies to his determination and his talent, making him the new world champion in this discipline.

The grandson of Raymond Poulidor, the first Dutch world champion since Joop Zoetemelk in 1985, won despite a fall on a rain-soaked road, when he flew alone 22 kilometers from the finish. .

Sliding in a bend about 16 km from the goal, he was able to remobilize to continue to extend, with a damaged shoe and a torn combination, his lead over a trio of royal pursuers, made up of Belgian Wout Van Aert, second as in 2020 1′ 37” from the winner, Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, third, and Dane Mads Pedersen.

At 28, Van der Poel, who was able to savor his triumph for a long time by holding his head in his hands, succeeds the former wearer of the rainbow jersey, the Belgian Remco Evenepeol, who failed to follow the best on Sunday.

The French forced to give up

Christophe Laporte and Julian Alaphilippe, considered the two best French chances at the World Road Cycling Championships in Glasgow, had unfortunately abandoned about 85 km from the finish.

Laporte, the reigning vice-world champion, was among the outsiders for the world title. But the rider from Jumbo-Visma was delayed by a mechanical problem at the worst moment, when Belgians and Danes forced the pace in the lead, a hundred kilometers from the finish. The Varois lost more than a minute in the affair.

Double world champion in 2020 and 2021, Julian Alaphilippe, who had attacked when he arrived on the circuit at mid-race before returning to the line, let himself be picked up to wait for him. But the two French never managed to catch up with the small peloton of favorites who rushed at full speed on the labyrinthine circuit of 14.3 km with 48 turns to be covered ten times. Seeing that they were no longer able to play for the medal, they stopped the charges.