The elite men's race in the UCI Cyclocross World Championships was expected to be a duel between Mathieu van der Pol (NL) and Wout van Aert (BEL), and so it was: the two protagonists left their rivals behind after eight minutes of racing, and ultimately Van Del Pole took the title for the third time.

An even more difficult prediction was who would join them on the podium. Sand specialist Laurens Sułek was the most favored of the Belgians, but in the end 27-year-old Toon Aerts dominated the rest.

"I'm happy to be on the podium with the best, not only in cyclocross but in cycling as a whole. It's only a third place medal, but it's really nice for me," Aerts said in the Sporza studio. It was his third consecutive third-place finish at the World Championships.

Aerts is far from a nobody in the cyclocross world. He is the 2017 European champion, the 2019 Belgian champion, and the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 World Cup double winner. This season, he won three early and one in the Superprestige Round Gieten in October, then repeated in the top 10, but without any additional wins.

There were multiple reasons for his failure to finish higher in Ostend. Aert suffered from contact soreness in training and team tactics by the powerful Pauwels Sausen-Bingold riders he faced in the regular season; early in the season when Van Aert and Van der Poel did not start their cyclocross campaign; and in the second half of the season, when he was not able to win any of his races, compatriots such as Eli Iserbyt, Michael Vanthourenhout, and Sweeck were in excellent form.

"It was a strange season with something always getting in the way. There were always excellent players like Iserbyt, Vanthourenhout, and Sweeck, followed by my accidents and battles with strong teams. After a tough winter season, being on the podium at the World Championships is worth much more than winning a small race," Aerts said.

Aerts joined Sunday's main chase group, which included the Belgian quartet of Quinten Hermans, Iserbeath, Van Tulenhout, and Sweek, and ran about 0.5 minutes behind early leader Van Aert. After two of the eight laps , Artz left his compatriots behind.

"It wasn't too bad today. I was worried that I left the other racers too early. Running together allowed us to stay on our wheels for a while and conserve energy. That allowed me to make a few good passes through the sand, but then I was alone again. That consumed a lot of energy," Aerts explained.

On laps 2 and 3, Aerts had the leaders in his sights as their times dropped: Van der Pol went over the handlebars and Van Aerts got a flat tire. He was the only one who could see and judge the top duo's run.

"To be honest, at first it looked like Wout had the cards to make a brilliant solo run. During the first three laps, every time I ran on the beach I saw Van der Pol running in front of me. He didn't seem to be pulling away from me as quickly as I would have liked. To me, he only seemed to accelerate away from me when Wout had a flat tire and started running again. In the first half of the race, Wout looked better to me," Aerts said.

Late in the race, youngster Tom Pidcock (GBR) overtook a chase group of four Belgians. The runner-up at last year's World Championships wasted no time in launching a chase on Aerts.

"He caught up to me briefly, but he was clearly drained of energy. He made a quick mistake in the sand and got stuck. It was mano a mano again," Aerts said.

By the final circuit of the eight-lap race, Aerts had a 13-second bonus on Pidcock.

Aerts again ran well in the sand in the first half of the course, but Pidcock raged in the muddy grass section of the Hippodrome in the second half of the course. Aerts had to hold off Pidcock in the sprint, but was clearly satisfied with his third place finish.

"On the last lap it was clear that this was our swan song. Pidcock was slightly faster on the last lap, but it was enough for a third place finish." Aerts took the final podium spot ahead of Pidcock, who finished fourth, and Sweek, who finished fifth.