Van der Poel crowned on streets of Glasgow

Protests, a tough circuit, rain and a late crash ensure drama from start to finish in men’s road race

Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel sealed his first road world title in Glasgow at the weekend at the end of an attritional race that saw just 51 riders finish. The much-criticised 14.3km city centre finishing circuit featured 45 corners and blew the bunch to pieces early in the race.

In scenes not witnessed in years at a Worlds road race a small elite lead group including van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Tadej Pogačar and Mads Pederson found themselves clear with 40km still to race.

Van der Poel made his winning move on a small rise with 22km remaining and after a crash on a wet right hand corner which all but destroyed his right shoe, he quickly picked himself up, remounted and went on to build a comfortable lead by the finish. His victory in the Scottish city centre ended a 38-year wait for a Dutch winner.

In the aftermath he played down his chances of securing a third world title this year in the mountain bike race at Glentress this weekend. He won the cyclo-cross World Championships on home soil in Hoogerheide earlier this year.

Ahead of his date with Britain’s Tom Pidcock – who skipped the road race to prepare for the mountain bike race – van der Poel said the thought of winning the mountain bike title to complete a world champs hat trick hadn’t crossed his mind.

“If I’m honest, not really,” he said when asked. “The goal is to qualify for the Paris Olympics, so that’s why I wanted to race on Saturday.

“I have to be honest, I think it’s going to be very difficult. I guess the last time I was on a mountain bike was before the Tour [de France] last year, so it’s more than a year ago.