Wout van Aert admitted to 'going over his limit' as rival Mathieu van der Poel rode away to take his fourth victory of the cyclocross season at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Gavere.

In the third 'cross meeting of the WorldTour competitors this month it was world cyclocross champion Van der Poel who again triumphed i👍n muddy conditions.

The tough banks and treacherous descents gave Van Aert more confidence he could beat his long-standing rival in Gavere compared to the previous races - which featured long san🥂d sections.

Van der Poel powered away on the opening lap and only Van Aert could respond as🐭 five seconds separated the pair, but as Van Aert tried to br▨idge across, Van der Poel increased his advantage to 30 seconds.

"In ♈the beginning, Mathieu just smashed it and was on another level," Va𓆏n Aert said. "It was extremely difficult today, the mud was quite sticky and every lap it was harder and harder to stay on the bike.

"In the b💮eginning, I was a bit too enthusiastic and tried⛄ to follow Mathieu's pace. Or at least to stay close to him. As a result, I exploded in the second lap and quickly lost a lot of time."

A lap later Van Aert clippe🦄d a s🌌pectator on a slippery descent section while riding close to the course markings as the gap increased further.

The gap between the rivals remained consistent for📖 the remainder of the event with the Belgian finishing 36 seconds behind the world cyclocross🍒 champion.

"I tried to push the whole race, but especially in the fꦐirst two laps I tried to stay close to him (Van der Poel) and halfway in the second lap on the long climb I went a bit over my limit and that's something you shouldn't do on this race because I lost 30 seconds in the lap afterwards.

Despite finishing a familiar second place to rival Van der Poel the Belgian was happy with his performance a🍷s he pressurised the in-form Dutch rider and reflected on some of the mistakes he made on the difficult course.

"I was quite happy with how it went,"𝓀 Van Aert added. "I tried it and I think you could see that, too. 🌳But I also made some technical mistakes.

"This often goes ha💃nd in hand with when you are having a mꦦore difficult time physically.

"You see the lines just a little less. I'm not entirely satisfied with that. It was my first really difficult mud 'cross and I no🃏ticed that."

Despite finishing second best Van Aert was a firm favourite with t𒅌he partisan Belgium 𝔉crowd.

"It was a 'cross that was quickly in place but that apparently didn't bother the supporters🤡," he added. "There was a lot of atmosphere. I had a lot of e♔ncouragement, I really enjoyed that."

With 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Va꧂n𒁃 Aert focusing on the Spring Classics, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Giro d'Italia and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Olympic Games next year his cyclo♛cross season looks different to previous seasons and the Belgian finishes his 'cross campaign two weeks before the world championships.

Van der Poel is bidding to defend his cyclocross world title in February and the two have different goals from this 'cross 🅺season.

"I made the choice to organ💞ise this winter differently," added Van Aert. "The results are good, but maybeಞ just a little less than usual. But that's just the way it is."