This year, Wout van Aert’s leg injury has denied us the chance of maybe seeing a battle or two between him and Mathieu van der Poel, but with Flandriencross Hamme coming up on Sunday, it is the perfect time to re-watch a vintage battle between the two from 2014.
The race replay below provides an interesting look back at cyclocross circa the mid-2010s. There were still cantilever brakes to be found, Sven Nys was on the start line next to a 20-year-old Van Aert and 19-year-old Van der Poel, Tom Meeusen was on Telenet Fidea and Lars van der Haar was in the colors of the Dutch champ.
The race itself featured massive group racing early on but eventually came down to a duel between Van Aert and Van der Poel.
You can watch the full replay in the video from Cycling Games below.
https://youtu.be/uXu8PZJRAaA
