Video: Mathieu van der Poel crashes into a marshal – but recovers to win

Mathieu van der Poel is on fire this cyclo-cross season, with five consecutive World Cup wins and six in the Superprestige series – the most recent of those coming in Diegem yesterday evening where even a marshal causing him to crash couldn’t stop the European champion.

The 23-year-old had already had to move up though the field after a poor start, then midway through the race came the crash with the marshal, which left the Dutch rider rubbing his neck.

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

— SuperprestigeCX (@SuperprestigeCX) December 30, 2018

Afterwards he explained that he’d seen the marshal – whom he didn’t blame and was retrieving glasses that another rider had dropped – on the right, so moved to the left, but the marshal moved that way too, and the pair crashed.               

The incident let Belgium’s Michael Vanthourenhout take the race lead, but van der Poel recovered to take the win and is now eyeing a potential clean sweep of all eight Superprestige rounds this season, the last two taking place in February.