Mathieu van der Poel took aim at  the top 10 in his comeback but he did much better. After his knee injury, the world champion finished on the podium in the World Cup race in Koksijde.

"Maybe I started too fast, but sometimes it is like that. I had told myself that I should avoid that, but I could not stop myself," Van der Poel told Sporza.

"I felt I had to do a few laps a bit quieter and then I ramped up my pace. I passed the rest one by one. I don't think a quieter start would have changed the outcome.

"I'm glad I'm on the podium. After two laps I had already achieved something. I also made ​​many small mistakes in the early stages. Then it went better and I found my pace. This gives me great confidence for the future. I'm going to quietly build on my condition.

"I don't have the conditional basis. So I can still have difficult moments. I also miss a few percent which I have to gain in races. In training you can not go through a wall in the way you do in a race. I just need to see that I get stronger in every race and I can not forget to do my endurance training."