Tom Pidcock has scalped Mathieu van der Poel, beating him by a big margin, to take his first pro victory at elite level.
Pidcock, who is in his final races competing for Andrew McQuaid's Trinity Racing before moving to Ineos Grenadiers, won Superprestige Gavere on Sunday when he was out front solo by a clear margin.
He came over the finish line celebrating in disbelief, with van de Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) claiming 2nd place some 25 seconds back. Toon Aerts (Telenet Baloise Lions) rounded out the podium 44 seconds down on winner Pidcock.
It was just the boost the British 21-year-old needed as he prepares to take the biggest step up of his career by moving to WorldTour level next season.
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Pidcock was to the fore on the opening lap of eight and led by five seconds going out onto the second circuit. Van der Poel and Aerts came back to him and they went out onto the third lap as a leading trio.
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However, while Pidcock looked under pressure at times and dropped off the back of the group a little, he pressed on on the fourth lap, to get rid of Aerts.
On lap 6 Pidcock shook off van der Poel; proving far too strong when the world champion made some mistakes. Pidcock clinically punished those errors and spent the final 2½ laps on his own riding away to victory.
The win was a major milestone in Pidcock's career and came just 24 hours after van der Poel was impressive in taking victory at X²0 Badkamers Trofee-Scheldecross in Antwerp.
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