After giving everything, van der Poel had to wait for overall leader Patrick Roest who went in the fourth and final heat.
The Dutchman could afford to take a beating by 21.71 seconds to take his fourth straight gold.
As early as 4000, Roest began to grin and had to fight while van der Poel smiled from the inside.
van der Poel ran like clockwork with all laps between 30.0 and 30.6 and had the fastest times on the last three laps: 29.8, 29.8 and 29.4.
The competition is ongoing.