Mathieu van der Poel delivered a dominant performance in his first race as world champion when he crushed the opposition in the Bpost Bank Trofee race in Lille.

“I got a box with new clothes and that was motivating,” he told Sporza after the race. “I was struggling in the first laps. But suddenly I was sitting in the front and I had a gap. I thought it would be a long race but fortunately it was not too bad in the end."

Tomorrow van der Poel will try to defend his lead in the Superprestige series at the race in Hoogstraten. “I had it on my mind when I went solo. But they can’t take this victory away from me if it goes wrong in the Superprestige.”