{"id":505739,"date":"2026-02-28T18:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T18:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/505739\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T18:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T18:24:08","slug":"glowing-van-der-poel-thanks-vermeersch-and-father-adrie-and-says-sorry-to-pluimers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/505739\/","title":{"rendered":"Glowing Van der Poel thanks Vermeersch and father Adrie, and says \u2018sorry\u2019 to Pluimers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> came, saw and conquered<\/a>. In his first-ever participation at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad<\/a>, he immediately started as the top favourite \u2014 and he more than lived up to that status. With a little help from a crash and a strong Florian Vermeersch<\/a>, but ultimately above all thanks to a pair of super legs, another box can now be ticked on the wish list. \u201cThis was a goal for us as a team, because we had never won Omloop before. It feels really good that I can win straight away on my first attempt,\u201d Van der Poel beamed afterwards in the organisation\u2019s flash interview<\/a>. He later added in Dutch: \u201cI\u2019m really happy \u2014 and the team is too \u2014 because this one wasn\u2019t on our list yet.\u201dBut it certainly wasn\u2019t just a routine tick-box exercise, because Van der Poel found himself in a pretty awkward situation on the Molenberg. Rick Pluimers<\/a> went down right in front of him, and it was a minor miracle that Van der Poel didn\u2019t go over the top. \u201cI want to say sorry to Rick, because I think I almost rode over his head,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t really avoid him, and I hope I didn\u2019t hurt him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the video<\/p>\n

Van der Poel praises Florian Vermeersch after Omloop Het NieuwsbladThat crash <\/a>involving Pluimers proved decisive on the Molenberg. \u201cLuckily I found my pedal again quickly, and at the top I got back to Florian, who was really strong today as well,\u201d Van der Poel explained. \u201cThat was the decisive moment in the race. I didn\u2019t see what happened behind me, but I assume it was total chaos there. There was immediately a big gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vermeersch, Van der Poel and the connecting Tim van Dijke quickly opened up a minute on the peloton, and that indeed turned out to be the race-winning move. The eventual winner was full of praise for Vermeersch, who went on to take third place for UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG. \u201cI\u2019ve known Florian for a long time and I have huge respect for him,\u201d said Van der Poel. \u201cThat respect is even bigger after today, because he was incredibly strong \u2014 and he always races to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got rewarded with a podium, because he was the driving force in the front group,\u201d Van der Poel continued, admitting he hadn\u2019t even noticed Vermeersch struggling with his gears on the Kapelmuur. \u201cI was focused on myself, also because it was really slippery. I had to put out a lot of power \u2014 and I was alone at the top \u2014 so from there it was full gas all the way to the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the video<\/p>\n

Van der Poel thanks father Adrie for crucial information<\/p>\n

At the top of the Kapelmuur, Van der Poel was on his own with 16 kilometres still to go. It was father Adrie who provided him with crucial information there. \u201cHe shouted that I had 16 seconds,\u201d said Van der Poel. \u201cThat was useful, because I didn\u2019t know my advantage at that moment \u2014 so it gave me an indication. He also tried to hand me a bottle, but I didn\u2019t really need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in the bag, the final question was whether Van der Poel would also make his Kuurne\u2013Brussels\u2013Kuurne debut on Sunday. The grin on his face said plenty. \u201cWe\u2019ll decide that on the bus on the way back to the hotel, but there\u2019s a chance I\u2019ll race, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mathieu van der Poel came, saw and conquered. In his first-ever participation at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, he immediately…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[162943,49,48,635,101666,13633,183263,201618,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-505739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-alpecin-premier-tech","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-florian-vermeersch","13":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","14":"tag-omloop-het-nieuwsblad","15":"tag-rick-pluimers","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}