Tom Pidcock took the biggest cyclocross victory of his career so far at the Telenet Superprestige, beating Mathieu van der Poel to cross the line first.
The 21-year-old made a blistering start on the first of eight laps before Van der Poel brought him back into the fold.
Alongside Toon Aerts, the trio tracked each other through the middle laps before a Pidcock acceleration put Aerts in trouble and he was distanced.
Then it was the British champion versus the world champion, and despite Van der Poel having put in a few digs when Aerts was still in contention, it was Pidcock who found another gear.
Pidcock sped away from the Dutchman and built up a comfortable gap, defending it for the final few laps.
“To be honest I dont know what to say, today I think I came of age,” Pidcock said afterwards.
“I think the past years I’ve been bad at the starts so I’ve been working on them and trying to improve and I know if I can do a good first lap and then not already be in the red after one lap then I can have a lot more at the finish.
“I’ve been training hard and now it pays off. Each race I’ve been getting stronger and after my last race the important thing I told myself was no-one will remember that if you get a result here so hopefully people can forget about that.
“The first part in the mud I was not so good but in the second part where it was steep I was stronger.”
Results
1. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Trinity Racing, in 58-11
2. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix, at 25 seconds
3. Toon Aerts (Bel) Telenet Baloise Lions, at 44s
4. Eli Iserbyt (Bel) Pauwels Sauzen – Bingoal, at 54s
5. Lars van der Haar (Ned) Telenet Baloise Lions, at 1-01
6. Michael Vanthourenhout (Bel) Pauwels Sauzen – Bingoal, at 1-13
7. Quinten Hermans (Bel) Tormans, at 1-31
8. Corné Van Kessel (Ned) Tormans, at 2-47
9. Thomas Mein (GBr) Tormans, at 3-24
10. Daan Soete (Bel) Group Hens – Maes Containers, at 3-33
