Mathieu van der Poel has defended his Dutch title. The reigning world champion from BKCP Corendon had a bad period in Hellendoorn a lesser period, but he overcame his troubles and made his move in the penultimate lap. Lars van der Haar had a comfortable lead at the midpoint but was no match for van der Poel. The bronze went to David van der Poel after a nice battle with Corné van Kessel

Below you can read reactions from the two top riders.

Mathieu van der Poel (1st)

For the second consecutive year, Mathieu van der Poel was crowned Dutch champion in Hellendoorn. Despite bad legs, he managed to beat Lars van der Haar. "I had not really recovered from my training camp in Spain," he told afterwards.

Van der Haar had also trained in Spain but was in a much better position halfway throught the race. “I had a bad time and was only fourth. At that point, Lars was in the lead and I knew he would pull through. I could not move and he quickly got fifteen seconds. Honestlu, I thought that it was over and I think Lars did so too. I did an easy lap, I have already done so often this season. Then I got my good feeling back I could ride my own pace. Within a lap, I came back to Lars very quickly with that was decisive in this race."

Due to his knee injury, a big part of Van der Poel’s winter was destroyed. The Worlds is also the only prize that still matters for him. "I have only trained for one purpose and that's Zolder. I'm at the same level. At the training camp, I showed to myself that I'm back at the top level, perhaps even slightly better. I notice that from my watts and heart rate because we have kept those from the previous years. But it could take some two weeks before it comes out. I welcome this Dutch jersey as it is certainly beautiful. But I would like to defend my world title and also think it is possible. The rainbow jersey is of course the most beautiful."

Lars van der Haar (2nd)

“It was a super nice course. I enjoyed the race very much, also because of the huge amounts of spectators.

“I raced a good race and I enjoyed the battle with Mathieu (van der Poel). I got a great opportunity to attack him, which I couldn’t ignore. I got 18” but was unable to retain it. Mathieu returned strongly and with two laps to go he accelerated, which I couldn’t answer.

“I gain a lot of confidence from this race and the fact that I was able to compete Mathieu is a good sign for me. So I am not extremely disappointed, but obviously I would have loved to win.

“I am proud of reaching this level directly after a training camp, which is quite rare for me. So I will continue to race with confidence.”