Toon Aerts (Belgium ) took a surprise win at the European Championships when he soloed to victory in the French city of Pontchateau. On a fast course that was almost like a road race, the outsider benefited from the tactical game and a strong Belgian attack to make a well-timed attack and as the chase never got organized, he won the race with a big advantage. Mathieu van der Poel beat Wout van Aert and Clement Venturini in the sprint for second.

Last year a strong performance in the second part of the season announced Toon Aerts as a serious contender on the future cyclo-cross scene. Most notably, he won the race in Leuven in early January and finished on the podium in the GP Sven Nys.

With a fourth place in the opening World Cup race in Las Vegas, Aerts showed that he is ready to build on his progress in the new season and with consistent top 10 results, he has confirmed his potential. Nonetheless, he still went into today’s European Championships as an outsider in a Belgian team that was led by Wout van Aert.

However, Aerts was unfazed by the prospect of being up against the two dominant figures, Mathieu van der Poel and van Aert. With a well-timed attack, he claimed a surprise win in the French city of Pontchateau and will proudly wear the blue jersey for a year.

The fast course turned the race into what was almost a road race and despite a number of attacks, none of the two favourites could make a difference. Instead, it came down to a tactical battle and while the favourites marked each other closely, Aerts attacked from afar after having briefly been distanced.

With several Belgians in the pursuit group, the chase never got organized and so Aerts constantly increased his advantage. With 3 laps to go, it was already clear that only disaster could deny him the win and he rode safely in the final laps to a take a hugely dominant win.

Instead, the excitement was about the battle for silver and van Aert and van der Poel could still not make a decisive difference. Hence, it came down to a sprint from an 8-rider group where the Dutchman narrowly held his arch-rival off to take second place, with Clement Venturini and Jens Adams completing the podium.

Aerts will get his first chance to wear his new jersey in Tuesday’s legendary Koppenbergcross which is part of the DVV Trofee series.

How it unfolded:

Michael Vanthourenhout got the fastest start and led the peloton for most of the first lap, stringing out the group on the fast course. Towards the end, Tim Merlier took over and then Marcel Wildhaber took control at the start of the second lap.

Riding on home soil, the Frenchmen showed themselves when Francis Mourey hit the front. The veteran was in control for almost the entire second lap and reduced the size of the main group to around 10 riders.

In the third lap, it was the Dutch pair of Lars van der Haar and Mathieu van der Poel that hit the front and they prepared the first attack from the latter. Accelerating hard before he bunny hopped the barriers, he immediately got a small gap. Wout van Aert, Clement Venturini and Vanthourenhout managed to close the gap and the quartet started the next lap with a 10-second advantage over the main goup which was led by van der Haar.

Venturini looked comfortable and took over the pace-setting from van der Poel but he couldn’t keep the peloton at bay and so the quartet was brought back. Laurens Sweeck made an immediate counterattack and as no one reacted, he started the next lap with a 10-second advantage over the big peloton that was made up of more than 10 riders.

After a bit of hesitation van der Poel again accelerated and this time only van Aert and Michael Boros could follow. The trio joined Sweeck at the next passage of the line where the front group still had an advantage of around 10 seconds.

As no one wanted to take the initiative, the front group slowed down and this allowed another regrouping to take place. That set the scene for another slow lap until Vanthourehout and Venturini managed to escape just before the next passage of the line. When the pair had a small gap, van der Poel took off in pursuit but van Aert soon brought the group back together.

Venturini was the next to try an attack but it was Toon Aerts who managed to get a gap. The Belgian soloed clear and started the fourth last lap with an advantage of around 10 second over the big peloton of around 15 riders.

The chase was not organized and so Arts managed to extend his advantage to more than 30 seconds. The Belgians did an excellent job to disrupt the chase and it was left to the Dutchmen and Frenchmen to try to bring Aerts back.

At the start of the penultimate lap, Aerts had pushed his advantage out to 48 seconds and this allowed the Belgians to go for more spots on the podium. Kevin Pauwels and van Aert attacked and while the main group splintered, the pair managed to get a small advantage.

Pauwels and van Aert couldn’t maintain their gap and so an 8-ride chase group gathered. Van Aert soon attacked again but as he couldn’t get rid of Pauwels, Venturini, van der Poel and van der Haar, the quintet slowed down as they started the final lap. Hence, the three dropped riders, Jens Adams, Steve Chainel and Marcel Wildhabe, managed to latch onto the back of the group.

Venturini led the chase for most of the lap but they didn’t get any closer and so Aerts had plenty of time to celebrate the biggest win of his career. Meanwhile, van der Poel managed to pass Venturini jut before the final turn and he narrowly beat van Aert and the Frenchman in the fight for second.