Tom Meeusen seemed to be in contention for the win in the Superprestige race in Zonhoven but he again faded in the finale, finishing the race in fourth. The Dutchman is frustrated to again have been close to the top 3 and now desperately wants to finally make it.

Tom Meeusen animated the Superprestige race in Zonhoven but with a fourth place he fell just short of the podium.

"Too bad," the Telenet-Fidea captain told Het Nieuwsblad. "Hopefully, things will go well next week in Ruddervoorde.

Like winner Kevin Pauwels, Tom Meeusen has a growing condition.

"But I still miss that little extra to finish on the podium. That's a shame. When they went a little bit faster in the sand, I made a mistake and I could not close the gap. It is unfortunate that I finish just outside the podium. I really want a podium spot. If Sven Nys had ridden with me, then they would not have caught us and I would have finished on the podium. Too bad," he added, referring to Pauwels and Lars van der Haar who rejoined Nys and Meeusen in the second part of the race.

Mathieu van der Poel was not completely satisfied after his race in which he finished fifth. 

"I missed my start because I unclipped," the Dutchman said. "That cost me some strength to come back. It was hard but it was already better than in Valkenburg (where he finished sixth in the U23 race). But I thought that I would be further ahead after that training camp in Benicassim. Now I'm going to rest for a week and hopefully that pays off next week even though I had hoped that I would have done better here on this course."