Mathieu van der Poel storms to Loenhout victory as Wout van Aert hindered by punctures

Mathieu van der Poel claimed his 18th consecutive cyclocross victory at the Azencross in Loenhout, Belgium, on Monday. 

It looked for a good while as though Van der Poel and Wout van Aert were going to battle it out head-to-head in front of an electric atmosphere in Loenhout with huge crowds in attendance. 

However, this scenario was dashed as Van Aert suffered two punctures during the race, and once Van der Poel had a gap, there was no coming back for anyone else.

Initially, from the start, it took Van der Poel a couple of laps to work his way to the front of the race, and the world champion almost came a cropper when a stray arm from a spectator nearly knocked him off his bike.

Van Aert increased the pace on the third lap, with Van der Poel the only rider able to follow, allowing the duo to battle mano a mano on the slippery course in Loenhout. 

The Belgian continued to apply pressure to the world champion during the remainder of the third lap, before Van der Poel went to the front for the first time heading into the fourth lap.

Van der Poel began to streak away from Van Aert quickly towards the end of the fourth lap, and the reason was quickly revealed to be a rear flat tyre for the Belgian rider. By the end of the lap, the gap between the duo had ballooned to 24 seconds, with a big chase pack hunting down Van Aert.

Van Aert was caught by the chase pack before he was able to reach the pit area to retrieve a fresh bike. 

While Van der Poel was storming to victory, Van Aert was able to create distance between himself and the other riders, before lightning struck twice and the Belgian suffered another puncture. 

The rest of the race was a procession for the world champion, while his teammate Niels Vandeputte battled his way to second place, 0:46 behind Van der Poel, to round out a successful day for Alpecin-Deceuninck.

It was a sprint for third place, with Joris Niewenhuis coming out on top at 0:57, marking a positive return after the Dutchman missed some recent races due to a knee injury he picked up from a crash at Antwerp. Van Aert ended the race in 10th.

The cyclocross action continues on Tuesday evening with the sixth round of the Superprestige series in Diegem, Belgium.