It’s hard to imagine a favorite other than quadruple cyclocross world champion Mathieu Van Der Poel at this Dutch national championship.. With a difficult circuit and the cobbled climb of Vam Berg, everything seemed to indicate a remake of last year, where he had defeated his adversaries with rare ease. And yet, the winner of the Tour of Flanders 2020 quickly found himself trapped on this test, letting his rivals slip away to victory, before giving up around fifty kilometers from the finish. A little disappointment as the Tour de France approaches for the man who is announced as one of the great entertainers at the start of the Tour, but nothing to worry about, the leader of the Alpecin Fenix team having already demonstrated his excellent condition on the roads of the Tour de Suisse.
Timo Roosen surprise winner
At the arrival, It’s a perfect day for Timo Roosen, the experienced rider of the Jumbo Visma, who went for the most beautiful victory of his career after a beautiful solo number, by resisting Bax Sjoerd and Oscar Riesebeek to offer himself his first national title at 28 years. On his team's website, he gave his impressions after the race : “I still have trouble understanding it. Last year, I was third, so I knew it would be a tough race again. The course suited me perfectly but that I could get the victory is really strange”. A surprise victory therefore, also enabled by his teammate Mike Teunissen, who made sure to leave him a little room in the final to ensure his victory. A tasty victory for the one who succeeds Mathieu Van Der Poel on the list of winners of this particularly tough championship.
