Mathieu van der Poel reflects on crucial moment after winning Omloop: "It was decisive"

Mathieu van der Poel came, saw, and conquered in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The Dutchman did so after a particularly chaotic finale full of incidents. "I’m very happy myself, and undoubtedly the team is too. This wasn’t even on our list yet," he said in the quick interview afterwards.

While many riders faced bad luck, Van der Poel managed to escape all the chaos. Although he flirted with a crash on the Molenberg, he pulled off a spectacular save. What exactly happened there? "I don’t even know myself. Ahead of me, a rider from Tudor (Rick Pluimers, ed.) went down and I couldn’t avoid him."

"I ran partly over him. I hope the damage for him isn’t too bad. I slipped a foot out of my pedal but luckily clipped back in quickly. I didn’t see what happened behind me, but there must have been chaos because at the top we immediately had a big gap. That turned out to be the decisive moment in the race."

Respect for Vermeersch
When Van der Poel says "we," he’s referring to Florian Vermeersch, with whom he was riding (partly) in the finale. "I’ve known Florian for a while and have always had respect for him. He was very strong and definitely the driving force in the breakaway. He always races to win and I respect that."

On the Muur of Geraardsbergen, that same Vermeersch experienced a gear problem, while Van der Poel launched his acceleration and put distance on his last rivals. "I didn’t notice that (referring to Vermeersch’s bad luck, ed.). I was focused on riding as concentrated as possible. The cobbles were very slippery."

"I then heard my father shout from the sidelines that I had a 15-second lead. That was important, because at that moment I didn’t know my gap. It feels good to finish it off like this. I like riding over the Muur. I’ve already won some great races there, and it also helped that there was a tailwind in the finale. That definitely worked in my favor."