Van der Poel Crashes into Course Marshall, Still Wins 2018 Superprestige Diegem – Report, Results

With its setting under the lights and party-like atmosphere, Superprestige Diegem is one of the most unique cyclocross races out there. On Sunday, the unique race took a turn for the bizarre with an incident that could have affected the outcome of the race and a rider’s safety.

After a slow start, Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon – Circus)—winner of four-straight Elite (and seven total) races at Diegem—finally worked his way back to the front and took over first from Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux – Bingoal) after three laps.

As Van der Poel made his way through one of the many narrow sections of the course, the bizarre came to Diegem. Van der Poel slammed into a yellow-clad course marshall who was standing on the left side of the track.

Van der Poel hit the marshall with his head down and appeared to hurt his neck in the crash. After a few moments, he tried to shake it off and resumed chasing Vanthourenhout, who had passed him during the incident.

Van der Poel quickly caught Vanthourenhout and the two were back together at the end of the lap.

Despite his crash and injury, Van der Poel was still well enough to unleash a massive attack in the streets of Diegem—just as he did to Wout van Aert (Cibel – Cebon Offroad Team) last year—to get a gap on Vanthourenhout.

As he has done in 19 other races this season, Van der Poel never gave up the lead the rest of the way, finishing the race with a skinsuit torn from a different crash and his 20th win of the 2018/19 season.

Mathieu van der Poel, here at Zonhoven, won his sixth Superprestige of the season at Diegem. 2018 Superprestige Zonhoven. © B. Hazen / Cyclocross Magazine

Night Moves in Diegem

The Elite Men’s race capped off the Sunday cyclocross night party at Superprestige Diegem. Lars van der Haar (Telenet Fidea Lions) got the party started by taking the holeshot and leading the Men’s field out onto the course.

Notably missing near the front were Van der Poel and Van Aert. Van der Poel had a rare bad start and sat outside the top 10, while Van Aert had a disastrous start, sitting down near 20th.

.@mathieuvdpoel en @WoutvanAert missen beide hun start en moeten meteen achtervolgen #SPDiegem pic.twitter.com/jAIyKjcpqN

— SuperprestigeCX (@SuperprestigeCX) December 30, 2018

After the off-camber, Toon Aerts (Telenet Fidea Lions) took over the lead and led a long train of riders through the streets of Diegem. Van der Poel started out in 10th and then slowly worked his way forward. At the end of the first lap, he was sixth in a group of about nine riders at the front.

The notorious off-camber early in the Diegem lap was probably the course’s most technical feature, so it was a chance for riders to shine or lose time. In the second lap, Aerts lost time when he got held up on the feature. His bobble allowed Van der Poel to keep moving up in the pecking order.

As the riders hit the streets for the second time, the lead group swelled to eight—Van der Poel, Van der Haar, Vanthourenhout, Aerts, Laurens Sweeck (Pauwels Sauzen – Vastgoedservice), Quinten Hermans (Telenet Fidea Lions), Tim Merlier (Crelan – Charles) and Daan Soete (Pauwels Sauzen – Vastgoedservice).

With the large group at the front, Vanthourenhout took an aggressive posture right before the sand pit. He moved into the lead and forced the others to chase. Van der Poel finally completed his move to the front at the barriers, joining Vanthourenhout with a four-second advantage on Aerts and the others after two laps.

Van der Poel’s skills were on full display at the off-camber all evening long. The Dutch wunderkind ripped through the highline and showed nary a twinge of hesitation. To his credit, Vanthourenhout also had the feature dialed early in the race and was able to follow close behind Van der Poel during the third lap.

Van der Poel stayed on the gas throughout the lap and finally got some space on Vanthourenhout after the sand pit and barriers. Three laps into the nine-lap race, Van der Poel’s advantage was four seconds. Thus far, Vanthourenhout had done an admirable job keeping close the Dutch star.

What Was That?

Cyclocross races rarely have moments that leave everyone watching staring in disbelief. Lap 4 of Sunday’s races was one of those rare moments.

With a growing lead on Vanthourenhout, Van der Poel put his head down charging through one of the narrow sections of the course. On one of them, standing on the left side of the narrow track was a bright-yellow-clad course marshall.

Despite the marshall’s bright attire, Van der Poel crashed into him head first. With his neck in obvious pain, Van der Poel took stock of his damage from the bizarre situation and quickly got back on his bike.

Brute pech! @mathieuvdpoel is nu zelfs te snel voor de stewards 😱 #SPDiegem pic.twitter.com/SMrqqL1Upc

— SuperprestigeCX (@SuperprestigeCX) December 30, 2018

With Vanthourenhout now past him, Van der Poel recovered took up the chase. He quickly caught up with Vanthourenhout, pulling even with him in the “wooded” section of the course. At the end of the lap, the two were together, and their advantage on Van der Haar, now in solo third, was 15 seconds.

In Lap 5, Van der Poel again railed the off-camber and opened up a little space on Vanthourenhout.

Last year at Diegem, Van der Poel buried Van Aert with a massive attack through the streets of Diegem. Still showing some effect from the marshall crash, Van der Poel unleashed his attack on Vanthourenhout at the same spot as he did last year. When the two riders cleared the section of the long straights, Van der Poel’s lead was up to eight seconds.

From there, Van der Poel kept Vanthourenhout at bay. He stretched his lead by a few seconds each of the next three laps to enter the bell lap with a 16-second advantage on the Belgian.

Van der Poel held his lead to take home his 20th win of the season and stay perfect in the six Superprestige races this season. The win was his fifth straight in the Elite race at Diegem and eighth straight including Junior and U23 races.

.@mathieuvdpoel behoudt zijn perfect rapport in de Superprestige! Zelfs een gemiste start en een valpartij kunnen hem niet van de overwinning houden 🏆 #SPDiegem pic.twitter.com/iuelG09HMl

— SuperprestigeCX (@SuperprestigeCX) December 30, 2018

Vanthourenhout finished with a strong second.

The battle for third had some intrigue down the stretch. After Van der Haar opened up a small solo gap on Aerts and Van Aert in Lap 5, the two Belgians chased him down in the early part of Lap 7. The three traded leads heading toward the bell, but Aerts broke away from the other two in the latter half of the penultimate lap.

Aerts held his small advantage through the last lap to round out the podium in third.

Stephen Hyde (Cannondale p/b CyclocrossWorld) finished 24th, Gage Hecht (Alpha Bicycle – Groove Subaru) 31st, Curtis White (Cannondale p/b CyclocrossWorld_ 35th, Michael van den Ham (Garneau – Easton p/b Transitions LifeCare) 36th, Gunnar Holmgren (Hardwood Next Wave Cycling Team) 39th, Max Judelson (Voler/Clif/HRS/Rock Lobster) 45th, Tyler Orschel (Brevard College) 51st, Nicholas Diniz (NCCH Elite p/b MGCC) 52nd, Cameron Jette 54th, Tyler Cloutier (TCCX) 56th, Peter Olejniczak (Orion Racing) 62nd and Josh Bauer (Donkey Label) 63rd.

Full results are below.

Elite Men Results: 2018 Superprestige Diegem