With his face still covered in mud, Tom Pidcock (Trinity Racing) knew exactly what he had accomplished in an hour in the Gavere mud. In the aftermath of his Superprestige win on Sunday, he said, "I think I peeled off today."

This was Pidcock's first major international win as an elite cyclo-cross rider; many from his debut campaign at the top level, including second place behind Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) at the World Championships in February While there were encouraging performances, Sunday's win was a major step forward in his career.

The 21-year-old, who was second to the unbeaten Van der Poel in the World Championships, kicked the three-time World Champion Van der Poel to the curb in Gavel and dominated the rest of the field. finishing within a minute were Toon Arts (Telenet Baloise Lions ) and Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen Bingor) were the only other players.

"Honestly, I don't know what to say," Pidcock said in a post-race interview. I think I've come a long way today."

Pidcock got off to a good start early in the race and finished the first lap alone in the lead. For Pidcock, it was the right thing to do.

Not only had he been slow this season, finishing 17th in the Tabor World Cup and 9th in the Superprestige Boom, but he had also been slow in the races themselves.

"I've had a bad start the last few years and I've been working on improving that. If I had done a better first lap and not already finished the race, my finish would have been much better. We have been training hard. [I'm] getting stronger every race. The important thing I told myself after Tabor was that no one would remember this if I got a result later.

Pidcock's early momentum did not last, and he settled into a lead group with Van der Pol and Aerts. However, by the end of the fourth of eight laps, he had taken the lead and reasserted his dominance.

Aerts quickly dropped back, and Pidcock was able to get away on lap 6, aided by a mistake by Van der Pol.

"To be honest, it was the technical part that I thought I was the best at," Pidcock said.

"Also, the second half of the climb was good for me. The first muddy part wasn't great, but once it stopped being so steep I got stronger."

Pidcock heads into the next round of the World Cup in Namur next Sunday full of confidence.

"I have been training specifically for climbing races," he said. I trained in Bellingen this week and will be there again next week."