Mathieu van der Poel made his return to cyclocross on Sunday at the World Cup Dendermonde, and despite a recent injury, the world champion proved he is not far from solid form. As expected, the Alpecin Phoenix rider took on Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) in a muddy race.

"Dendermonde was a tough race," said van Aert. This is exactly what I expected."

Van Aert pulled away from his rivals by 11 seconds on lap 5 to win his second consecutive World Cup title, 49 seconds ahead of Van der Pol and 29 seconds ahead of third-place Toon Aerts (Valoise Trek Lions). A showdown with Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) did not materialize, with Pidcock finishing nearly three minutes behind in eighth place.

"The first part of the race was exploratory. I got caught up in a big group and that made me lose track...As the first lap went by things improved and I was able to predict the course of the race. I tried to put some early pressure on Van der Pol and Aerts, but I didn't get the result I wanted. Fortunately, my second attempt paid off."

Van der Poel was scheduled to make his cyclocross debut last weekend at the Rucphen World Cup in the Netherlands, but postponed it for a week to recover from a knee injury sustained in winter training; the second half of the 2021 road racing season was interrupted by a back injury. He recently trained at the Alpecin-Fenix gathering in Spain, but expected it would take him a few races to regain top form for the cyclocross season.

"The first half [of the race] went well, but the second half got progressively worse," van der Pol said after finishing second. "I got a little bit tired, and at some points I got out of breath pretty quickly. So at some point I had to pick a pace that I could maintain."

The two will clash again in the next round of the Super Prestige Series in Heusden-Zolder on Monday. Round 13 of the World Cup will be held in Hulst on January 2. All elite men's and women's races will be covered by Cycling News with race reports and photo galleries.

"I love the atmosphere that surrounds this sport," said the winner. I'm happy with this win and I hope to continue this in the future. The next challenge is tomorrow."