{"id":7698,"date":"2025-02-03T14:43:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T13:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=7698"},"modified":"2025-02-18T14:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T13:52:16","slug":"van-der-poel-in-a-waltz-van-empel-in-a-war-win-cyclo-cross-world-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/02\/03\/van-der-poel-in-a-waltz-van-empel-in-a-war-win-cyclo-cross-world-titles\/","title":{"rendered":"Van der Poel (in a Waltz), van Empel (in a War) Win Cyclo-Cross World Titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mathieu van der Poel became only the second elite male rider to win seven cyclo-cross world championships when he again destroyed a field of the world\u2019s best riders on Sunday in Li\u00e9vin, France.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In matching the record of the late Erik De Vlaeminck, the 29-year-old Dutchman also benefited again from the bad luck of his eternal rival Wout van Aert,<\/a> who endured the worst of starts and never came close to making it the tightly raced contest many fans had anticipated, though he rode a very strong race to finish second.<\/p>\n

As he had\u00a0 in the World Cup race last weekend in Maasmechelen, where van Aert crashed on the first lap, van der Poel accelerated with about half of the first of eight 2.8km laps to go and ended all suspense in about 10 pedal strokes. He led by 20 seconds (over Laurens Sweeck) at the end of lap 1, by 45 seconds (over Belgian and European champion Thibaud Nys) at the end of lap 2 and by 46 seconds (over van Aert!) at the end of lap 3.<\/p>\n

Van der Poel\u2019s winning margin over van Aert was 45 seconds, which shows that the mano a mano everyone was hoping for might have been a real contest if van Aert, who started from the fourth row, had not been caught up in traffic and forced to the barriers in a typically chaotic start.<\/p>\n

“I knew it had to be good at the start, but it was completely against me,” said van Aert after the race. “In the first corner I almost went into the fences. As a result, it took a long time before I got a little space and could move up. Of course, I had hoped for a different scenario. But I knew this was a possibility, so I tried to stay calm.”<\/p>\n

He was way back in 37th place in the field when he could finally ride out of the traffic and stretch his legs. And it took him nearly three laps to catch the small group of riders chasing the runaway leader. He managed to drop everyone in that group except the Belgian Joris Nieuwenhuis, who was riding a strong race after returning to racing following a lengthy absence due to a bad case of shingles. But in lap 5, van Aert took advantage of a bike change by Nieuwenhuis to open a gap that never grew smaller.<\/p>\n

Nieuwenhuis was ultimately also overtaken by Nys and finished fourth, 1:15 behind the winner, while Nys finished at 1:06 and joined the two best cyclocross riders in the world on the world championship podium.<\/p>\n

As for van der Poel, he simply did what he always does, ride away and almost never look back, though this time he said that he took his cue from the dominant winner of the U23 race, fellow Dutchman Tibor del Grosso. “We saw it yesterday with the U23: the best tactic is often to ride in the lead right away and do your own thing,” he said immediately after the race. “Especially on this course because it was super, super tricky and there were a lot of problems to get into the pedals as well. If you are in a group then it is even more annoying. I just tried to get a big gap to discourage the chasers a bit. That worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

He can say that again. In winning, he said that he had to overcome an unwelcome equipment issue. \u201cAfter I had created a nice gap, I was very afraid of a flat tire,” van der Poel said.\u201d He had reason to fear, because his front tire went flat on lap 3. “I had a puncture immediately after the equipment post and had to ride with a flat front tire for a while. That took a lot of energy. After that, I was very careful.”<\/p>\n

Naturally, tying De Vlaeminck\u2019s record, which has been on the books since 1973, was a dream come true. “His record had been on the tables for a long time,\u201d van der Poel said. \u201cWhen I started in the elite category, I dreamed of winning one world title. But I never thought I could become world champion seven times.”<\/p>\n

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A post shared by MVDP (@mathieuvanderpoel)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n