Wout van Aert saw little reason to sugarcoat his second-place finish at the X2O Trofee Baal on New Year’s Day. Mathieu van der Poel has been unbeatable on the cyclocross circuit this winter and the world champion duly continued his winning streak on Monday, but Van Aert confessed to surprise at a margin of victory just shy of two minutes.
“I was shocked by that, to be honest. Mathieu was super strong,” Van Aert said afterwards, according to Het Laatste Nieuws.
