Nokere Koerse 2019 Recap: Cees Bol Wins, Van der Poel Leaves in Ambulance

Nokere Koerse 2019 Recap: Cees Bol Wins, Van der Poel Leaves in Ambulance

Cees Bol sprinted to secure Sunweb’s first victory of the 2019 season today in a very tense finish at Nokere Koerse.

Reigning cyclocross world champion Mathieu van der Poel and several other riders crashed hard in the final kilometer. The crash occurred shortly after the peloton rode onto a section of cobblestones just 500 meters from the finish line in downtown Koerse. Sunweb’s Max Walscheid appeared to rub shoulders with another rider causing the crash and the ensuing pileup took down Van der Poel, Floris Gerts (Tarteletto-Isorex), and Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo). Jonas Koch of Team CCC crashed into van der Poel, but was able to remount his bicycle and finish.

Van der Poel was unable to finish the race, and was taken to a local hospital in an ambulance. Thankfully, in the hours after the crash his Corendon-Circus team has confirmed that a medical exam revealed no broken bones for the Dutch champion.

Bora-Hansgrohe’s Pascal Ackermann went early but Bol jumped onto his wheel and with 50 meters to go surged past him to take the biggest win of his career. Ackermann took second and Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) rounded out the podium.