Mathieu van der Poel dresses in rainbows with an exhibition at the Glasgow World Cup

2023-08-06 19:27:51

the dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel has been proclaimed this sunday road cycling world champion in the World Cups that are taking place in Glasgow, after leaving alone 22 kilometers from the end of the technical 271.1-kilometre urban route through the Scottish city and recovering from a fall in the final stretch.

The grandson of the mythical Raymond Poulidor, 28 years old, completed one of the most glorious feats in the history of the World Championships; he jumped from among the favorites -the Belgian Wout van Aert, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar and the Danish Mads Pedersen- in the middle of the hill, 22 kilometers from the finish line, after the four hunted down the Italian Alberto Bettiol -who had escaped a few kilometers before-, printing a devilish rhythm that his pursuers could not reproduce.

Not even a fall at 16 kilometers weighed down his ambition. With a time of 6:07:27, the man from Alpecin-Deceuninck crossed the finish line and surpassed the Belgian by 1:37 Wout van Aert, silver this Sunday, and in 1:45 to Slovenian Tadej Pogacarsecond classified in the last Tour de France and who entered just ahead of the Dane Mads Pedersenwith the same time, to take the silver medal.

In this way, Van der Poel, five times cyclocross world champion, takes over from Belgian Remco Evenepoel, winner of the test in 2022, and confirms his great year, in which he has also won the classic Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix. A tribute to his grandfather ‘Pou Pou’.

All in a race that had to be detained for nearly an hour after a group of protesters against the indiscriminate exploitation of oil to interrupt the runners with 190 kilometers to go before the finish line; the individuals glued themselves to the road around the Carron Valley, between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the action stopped.

Before, a dozen cyclists starred in the first break of the day. At the restart, the pace rose decidedly and there were many who presented their candidacy, such as Evenepoel, Van der Poel himself or ‘outsiders’ such as the American Neilson Powless.

The fall of Ecuadorian Jonathan Narváezwith just over 42 kilometers to go, caused a cut in the peloton that left the four protagonists of the day alone, and only 22 kilometers from the finish line was the sentence handed down, with Van der Poel as judge.