Mathieu Van der Poel wins Trofee Herentals as Wout Van Aert suffers heartbreaking final-lap puncture

Mathieu Van der Poel won the Trofee Herentals as Wout Van Aert suffered a heartbreaking final-lap puncture on his home course.

And once again, the rest of the field had no answer to their quality, with Van Aert and Van der Poel leading the race together for the entirety of the latter stages.

Roared on by sizeable crowds around a technical, tricky course, Van Aert – in his home race, having been born in Herentals – looked to be the favourite of the two given his recent form which has landed him five wins so far this term.

But Van der Poel wasn’t going away and he was neutralising Van Aert’s attacks, perhaps with a view to conserving energy on the final, long sprint to the line.

And suddenly on the final lap, Van der Poel established a gap as Van Aert shook his head and looked down at his bike.

It wasn’t immediately clear what was the problem but as he came through the pits the bike appeared to be sliding, and a puncture to the back tyre appeared the reason.

As such, Van der Poel had a much easier ride to the line than he might have expected, as the crowd were deprived of a grandstand finish.

Eli Iserbyt, also of Belgium, came third and there was a creditable fifth place for Britain’s Cameron Mason.

Speaking afterwards, Van der Poel said: “I would have preferred to beat Wout without that flat tyre.

“I rode differently today and saved something for the last half lap.

“I wanted to start the technical forest in first position. Too bad that Wout couldn’t defend his chance.”

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