Watch: Mathieu van der Poel pulls off unbelievable save to stay upright in Superprestige cyclocross

Mathieu van der Poel survived a hair-raising moment on his way to victory at Superprestige Zonhoven as he pulled off an unbelievable save after losing control at speed in the course's famous sandpit.

After a slow start that saw him 10 seconds back at the end of the first lap, Van der Poel steadily chased back to the leaders including rival Wout Van Aert by the third lap, before upping the pace and going solo shortly after.

>>> Watch: Sven Nys wows crowd with his cyclocross skills (video)

From there Van der Poel would not be caught, but that was despite a small crash on a tight, low-speed bend, and this scary moment in the famous sandpit descent.

With thousands of spectators watching on, Van der Poel safely negotiates 90 per cent of the descent before his front wheel appears to dig in, sending his body forward over the bars and his back wheel into the air.

Showing he's leading the world rankings the Dutch champion somehow manages to stay upright, posting a video of the incident on Instagram with the hashtag #luckyme.