SNOWY CHAOS! 🌨️ | Men's Exact Cross Mol Highlights | TNT Sports Cycling

So it's the fifth round of seven, the prestigious X-Act cross from Mole. The big fight was to be expected between Mathieu van der Poel, four-time winner here, and Wout van Aert, also a four-time winner. But it was Toon Aerts who led the first lap, but following behind van der Poel and van Aert, both getting good starts off that front row. Van der Poel followed Toon Aerts on the opening lap as they really worked out these very, very tricky conditions as covering of snow on top of the sand, making it very, very tricky to see the good line. But van Aert found the good line over the dune on that first lap. We saw van Aert looking really good on the deep sand. Van der Poel just struggling a little bit in the first couple of laps to get his rhythm. And that's when the snow started to fall heavier and heavier, laying really difficult conditions in the sand, but definitely on the tarmac near the start-finish areas. These transition sections became lethal with this covering of snow. It was always van Aert and van der Poel when things began to split, those two going ahead of Aerts and Oorts. It would come back together, but van der Poel was willing to take it on very quickly and really wanted to get on with things today. The snow going from light to full blizzard at this point as we started the third lap. And it was a mistake in the sand section from van Aert. Van der Poel going clear, forcing the gap, and at one point it up to 15 seconds. And it looked like van der Poel was going to just ride off into the distance at this point, gapping van Aert. Van Aert then coming in for a bike change. The table started to turn. It was this section, a rare crash. Van der Poel going down heavily on his shoulder. Too much weight on the inside pedal, the outside pedal not clipping in. The momentum then flipped back to Wout van Aert. Wout van Aert sensing and seeing that van der Poel was struggling a little bit, and the gap then closed back up. There have been few occasions this season when we've seen someone able to ride back to van der Poel after that initial attack, but it was van Aert who was able to void by seeing that gap coming down, moved up to the wheel of van der Poel and then took the initiative, went round the world champion and initially started to apply some pressure in the sand sections. Problems for two Narts on the dune, just not being able to quite get that dismount area right. We saw him go down a number of times there. Wout van Aert was hitting the front, and he was happy to lead into the sand. We saw van der Poel visibly struggling in the cold conditions, constantly blowing into his hands. Slightly thinner gloves by the look of it, and less coverage than the gloves of Wout van Aert. And it was Wout van Aert who looked like he had the beating, or the better at this point, of the world champion Mathieu van der Poel. This was the key moment. Van der Poel went to the front and through this second corner, just began to lose it on the tarmac. Wout van Aert reacted to the slide of van der Poel and went down very heavily on that right-hand side, that right knee which he injured so badly at the Vuelta a couple of years ago, and really felt the effects of that crash, limped his way to the pits, and unfortunately had to pull out of the race. We really hope it isn't as bad as it looked. Wout van Aert bloodied, battered from that crash. He was desperate to continue, such a fighter, but was unfortunately forced to take an early shower as van der Poel fought on in the conditions, trying to keep some warmth in his hands. As it continued to snow, but the gap now going out. Look at the blizzard conditions as we came up to the bell. Mathieu van der Poel a minute now ahead of Aerts. Aerts doing a really solid ride as he continued to plough on. Oorts going down for a second time in the snow on the icy conditions, but it was Mathieu van der Poel, grimace on his face. You see the bare wrists proving to be a bad option. Really cold hands, visibly in pain, but taking his ninth win of the season, 19 wins in a row for the world champion. Can anyone beat van der Poel this season? Aerts, 123 down in second position, and a hard-fought third position for Felipe Oorts, the Spanish champion. But what a race, what a result. All the best for Wout van Aert. Hopefully we can see him back in action in two days at the World Cup in Zonahem. Be great to see him going head-to-head again with the world champion Mathieu van der Poel. Aerts making a light of the snowy conditions. Look how much snow has fallen. Just fell at the end of the women's race. Continued to fall to the end, and this will go down as one of the most epic cross races in recent history. So your top three, Mathieu van der Poel, Aerts, Felipe Oorts, and then followed by Jeroen Vissera, a fantastic fifth position for the British rider Thomas Meen. He'll take a lot of confidence going to the British champs next week. Now it's better. I'm getting warm again, but it was really, really cold. Did you feel like you and Wout could have stayed together until the end if he didn't crash? Yeah, he looked quite strong. It's always difficult to say, of course, but we will never know. I'm going to let you heat up now. Thank you. Seven-time world champion, 18 wins in a row, eight with nine wins now this season. Still shivering away. Going to need to get back in that Lambo and get the aircon on pretty sharpish. Mathieu van der Poel taking his fifth win here at Malt. Down to take a day off tomorrow. Big super prestige race tomorrow. In Gullegen, we saw Nils van der Putt a rolling top in this race today. We'll take the race tomorrow. And then the World Cup is on. The next occasion, an opportunity to see Wout van Aert and Nees all go head-to-head.