An hour-long battle for the rainbow jersey between Mathieu Van der Pol (Netherlands) and Wout Van Aert (Belgium) was the talk of the town, but a sprint match between the two for Van der Pol's fourth world title never materialized. The drama moved to the final podium after van der Pol lost a position with a front wheel puncture on lap 3, ending the storyline.

Belgian Toon Arts and Briton Tom Pidcock battled for bronze in the elite men's race at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships. From a sand, surf, and muddy course in Ostend, Belgium, Aerts won the bronze medal in the sprint.

"I was pretty strong, but in the sand ...... Some laps were good, some laps were not. I was close, but not quite there," Pidcock told Sporza after the race. I think we had a good race. I think we had a good race, except for the mistake we made in the sand.

"Every year my riding there gets better. It's not a place where British riders excel. To be honest I'm a bit disappointed because I think I could have been on the podium. No one will remember in five years who was third and fourth.

By the end of the first lap, the two favorites for the win, van der Pol and van Aert, were well ahead of the pack, with Pidcock in tenth, and by lap four they had broken away from the pack and set their sights on Aerts, with the two vying for the final podium spot.

"I got a good start, but I couldn't commit, so I went back a bit. In the first corner I was on the left side and the sand was deep so I had to go down and drive a little bit.

At the bridge section on lap 6, Pidcock briefly moved up to third, but was passed again by Aerts in the sand and was seven seconds behind.

"I caught up to Toon (Aerts) but hit the sand and couldn't make it to the ocean. The sand lap was really bad and I lost a lot of time," Pidcock said about not getting a chance to close the gap to Aerts. The Belgian then extended the gap to 16 seconds, with Laurens Sweck (Belgium) close behind the British rider.

"On the last lap I was a second or two behind him, I pulled away 12 seconds, but at the finish he was in front and I couldn't catch him," Pidcock added.

The 21-year-old last raced in the U23 category at the 2019 World Championships, where he won the world title; in 2020 he competed in the elite men's event and won silver over Aerts. This year, Van Aerts returned along with defending champion Van der Pol, and no matter how well Pidcock performed, Aerts was not about to give up his podium spot.

Pidcock has nine podium finishes in 13 races this season, including a win at the Superprestige in Gavère in December. With home-field advantage, Aerts has competed in twice as many races and earned 11 podium finishes.

Now transitioning from cyclocross to a road cycling career, Pidcock told Cyclingnews earlier this week that he is looking forward to donning the Ineos Grenadiers kit for "the second phase is to go full pro on the elite team."

On Sunday he spoke about the new season. 'It's been a good year in general. It gave me a lot of confidence for the road season and to come back stronger next year. They are five or six years older than me. It will take a few more years to get stronger. Hopefully I can race more in the next few seasons."