It is neither surprise nor news that Mathieu van der Poel wins a cyclo-cross race. He is undefeated in this discipline since January 2024. … It doesn’t matter if there is mud, snow or sand. The Dutchman is a marvel for fans and a nightmare for specialists, who are left with their mouths open when a runaway horse passes them on the right. Where others see problems, he sees opportunity.
With three races to be held – the next one in Benidorm on Sunday the 18th, which will be followed by events in Maasmechelen and Hoogerheide, on the 24th and 25th – Van der Poel is already looking at the rest in the rearview mirror in the overall World Cup despite having competed in half of the races (five, for a total of nine). Thibau Nys, with three victories, and Michael Vanthourenhout, with one, have been the other two winners in the World Cup.
On Sunday Van der Poel rose to the top again with his relentless victory in Zonhoven (Belgium), which marked his ninth winter win on the mud in as many appearances.
The numerous falls that the complicated and technical Belgian circuit left in its wake, with a lot of snow accumulated in recent days, did not affect the current world champion of the modality in the least, but they did affect a man who, unlike Van der Poel, does have the objective of winning the overall World Cup: Thibau Nys.
Today Van der Poel is the overall leader with 200 points, 10 more than Nys and 13 more than Vanthourenhout, who are seen as his main threats since Laurens Sweeck, who maintained the lead for most of the course, misses the remainder of the calendar due to suffering an acromioclavicular fracture, and that Van Aert has said goodbye to the winter season after falling during the race in Mol, last Friday, breaking an ankle and having to undergo surgery.
Eric De Vlaeminck
World champion on the road (that hill in Glasgow), in cyclocross (7) and in gravel (1), Raymond Poulidor’s grandson acknowledged when he became leader of the World Cup that “the chances are still small” that he will compete in Benidorm because his planning is focused on the Hulst World Cup that will be held on February 1, but the fact of leading the World Cup, together with the real option of sentencing the general classification in that Benidorm event, could end up pushing Van der Poel to reconsider his absence on the shores of the Mediterranean. At the moment there is no registration list.
On the horizon Van der Poel has the possibility of breaking the tie in world championships with Eric De Vlaeminck and perhaps also his retirement from this discipline as he has hinted at this Christmas in statements to Belgian television. «It would be very nice to break the record for world titles in Hulst and do it in my country. I have always said that when I retire, I want to do it in my country, and do it with the record. I’m not going to be doing cyclocross forever. It’s time for one day to end. I have always said that I want to finish on a high, both on the road and in cyclocross. The World Cup as a final goodbye? Who knows? “We haven’t decided anything yet.”
