World and Olympic Champion Nino Schurter expressed his appreciation of Mathieu van der Poel very explicitly: ”You are a machine!” After winning the second UCI MTB World Cup race in Albstadt/Germany Schurter didn’t have to wait for long to applaud and congratulate runner-up Mathieu van der Poel.
The Dutch Cyclocross Champion of Team Beobank Corendon who had used the STEVENS Fully Jura Carbon Team as his weapon of choice for this course came in only 26 seconds behind Schurter after about one and a half hours of racing.
Just one week prior the 22-year old Mathieu van der Poel had earned a starting slot in the first grid. Starting from position 90 in the first World Cup race in Nove Mesto he finished a sensational place 8. During the following week he even competed on the road in the Belgium Tour (UCI 2.HC) riding his STEVENS Comet, winning the third stage in the sprint on Thursday before dropping out in order to use the ”unique opportunity” in Albstadt.
Mathieu made the most from the advantage to start from the first grid. He went straight to the front and controlled the pace. Result: The peloton split up early into several groups. At the front only Nino Schurter followed, a little later Lukas Flückiger could catch up.
The trio worked together from now on and each took his turn leading-out until about halfway through the race Mathieu crashed. ”It was a stupid mistake. I fell, hurt my knee and lost contact to the others ahead of me. It was difficult to find my rhythm again.” Obviously he found it and even was able to advance to second place, after Flückinger himself crashed hard and couldn't go on.
From that moment on the gap between Schurter and van der Poel alternated between 18 and 30 seconds. Mathieu continued the race flawlessly to keep his advantage over the other chasing riders at about 20 seconds. Anton Cooper from New Zealand came in third. Maxime Marotte, Stephane Tempier und Julien Absalon followed in further places. All results.
Mathieu said after the race: ”Of course I am very happy with this result. I like mountain biking even better right now. Starting from the first grid makes it a lot more interesting.” Asked if he wanted to start in the next World Cup race he answered: ”Let’s see!” A well-forward starting slot will surely be reserved for the multi talent.