Young Mathieu van der Poel has added the Scheldecross written to his palmares. The Dutchman dominated the race from start to finish. At the halway point, he dropped his breakaway companion Laurens Sweeck and then rode solo to the finish. It is his first victory since October 5. 19-year-old Sweeck took a fine second place while Tom Meeusen completed the podium.

Going into the Scheldecross, there was fear that the race would suffer from the absence of Sven Nys and Kevin Pauwels but that was definitely not the case. Right from the start, Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Meeusen put their rivals under pressure and only Laurens Sweeck was able to keep up with them.

Due to the poke game between Meeusen an van der Poel, Sweeck saw his chance to make an attack but was unable to escape the clutches. With six laps to go, Meeusen started to suffer due to the high pace

A few moments later, van der Poel left Sweeck behind. At the midpoint, the Dutchman started his demonstration of force. In no time, he built a lead of 12 seconds. A quartet was 30 seconds behind while Meeusen had now lost 45 seconds.

Going into the penultimate lap, Corné Van Kessel saw his chance to go for third. The Telenet Fidea rider rode away from his companions but he didn't get far. At the start of the final lap, Meeusen had rejoined the chasers and with a great final effort, the Telenet-Fidea leader took third.

However, he was far behind winner van der Poel. The Dutch BKCP-Powerplus rider crossed the line in solo fashion and took his first victory since October 5 when he won the Superprestige race in Gieten. The 19-year-old Sweeck took second, 40 seconds behind van der Poel.

Result:

1. Mathieu van der Poel

2. Laurens Sweeck

3. Tom Meeusen

4. Rob Peeters

5. Philipp Walsleben

6. Corne van Kessel

7. David van der Poel

8. Didier Sweeck

9. Bart Wellens

10. Sven Vanthourenhout