Wout van Aert snatches Superprestige Heusden-Zolder win ahead of Mathiew van der Poel in thrilling finish

Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert outsprinted Mathieu van der Poel in a thrilling final lap during the fifth round of Superprestige Heusden-Zolder in east Belgium.

Van der Poel led Van Aert as the pair marked each other on the ninth lap, with the former producing a burst of speed to gear up for a long muddy descent before taking on a flight of stairs as he edged towards victory.

But an error from the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider as he slipped off the bike in the woods set up a mighty sprint race, which Van Aert took full advantage of to power home.

“First I tried to make the difference in the final technical section,” Van der Poel explained after the race. “I tried to make it a long sprint but that didn’t succeed.

“Then we went to the sprint. Unfortunately, I clipped out of my pedal. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t ride my sprint.”

Baloise Trek Lions’s Van der Haar held off Great British World Champion Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), who could only manage fourth spot, as the podium gave Van der Haar enough points to take the lead in the Superprestige series.

Van der Haar led the series alongside Laurens Sweeck ahead of Tuesday’s race, but the Dutchman, who ultimately took a solo lead, was helped by Sweeck finishing eighth.

Michael Vanthourenhout finished fifth, Joris Nieuwenhuis and Quinten Hermans managed sixth and seventh place respectively, with Sweeck, Kevin Kuhn, and Niels Vandeputte wrapping up the top ten.

The riders return to action in the Superprestige on Wednesday evening as they take on the unique Diegem course, available from 19:35 GMT on Eurosport 2.

– – –

Stream the 2023 cycling season live and on-demand on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk