{"id":9093,"date":"2026-01-30T09:39:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=9093"},"modified":"2026-02-03T09:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T08:47:24","slug":"van-der-poel-huge-favourite-to-break-worlds-win-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2026\/01\/30\/van-der-poel-huge-favourite-to-break-worlds-win-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Van der Poel Huge Favourite to Break Worlds Win Record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>If I had a farm to bet, I would bet it, and all the livestock on it, on Mathieu van der Poel winning Sunday\u2019s Elite Men\u2019s Cyclo-cross World Championship and breaking the men\u2019s wins record he now shares with Erik De Vlaeminck. If he wins \u2013 <em>when <\/em>he wins \u2013 he will share the overall record with the great Marianne Vos, who has won the title eight times.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By contrast, Saturday\u2019s Elite Women\u2019s race is more difficult to handicap because the rider who has dominated the season, Lucinda Brand, had an inexplicably mediocre performance in last Saturday\u2019s World Cup race at Maasmechelen, finishing tenth, and came out of the race with a calf injury, which forced her to miss the season\u2019s final World Cup race on Sunday at Hoogerheide.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Van der Poel in a canter<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Barring a calamitously bad day or a disastrous crash or sudden illness, there is no way that van der Poel (Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech) can lose the race. It\u2019s a difficult and very technical course, with lots of ups and downs, that rewards sustained effort; in other words, it suits him like a custom-tailored Armani suit. And his victory last weekend at Maasmechelen, after sustaining two punctures, underlined his superiority over his rivals. As legend Sven Nys put it before Van der Poel tied and then, on Sunday, broke his record for World Cup victories, \u201cHe is the greatest cyclo-cross rider who has ever raced.\u201d \u2018Nuff said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The only suspense in the race should be if Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech can again sweep the podium places, as they did with Tibor del Grosso and Niels Vandeputte in both races last weekend, or if Sven\u2019s son Thibau Nys (Baloise Verzekeringen\u2013Het Poetsbureau Lions ) can finally ride a race not strewn with errors of judgment and commission and finish second. But even if he manages to ride a flawless race, which is far from certain on such a technical course, can he beat del Grosso, who is technically superb and in fine form? These two young riders will almost certainly dominate the sport once van der Poel has left it, so we might witness another preview of things to come.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We might also be witnessing van der Poel\u2019s final cyclo-cross race. In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/nl-nl\/nieuws\/other\/en-als-het-nu-niet-lukt-voor-mathieu-van-der-poel-in-hulst-dan-ga-ik-sowieso-door-met-crossen\/ar-AA1V5jSc?ocid=BingNewsSerp\"><em>Het Laatste Nieuws<\/em><\/a>, he was asked if this could be his final cyclo-cross race. \u201cI still like to \u2018cross, but you also have to think about other options,\u201d he replied. \u201cAnd it has to end someday, right? I always hoped to stop on a high\u2026 Riding only the World Championships is also a possibility. We&#8217;ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And if he doesn\u2019t win Sunday and break the record? \u00a0\u201cThen I&#8217;ll continue anyway,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that I&#8217;m so close to that record, it&#8217;s a goal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Brand or Pieterse or\u2026?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brand (Baloise Verzekeringen\u2013Het Poetsbureau Lions) had won 13 races in a row when she began losing her form. She finished second to Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix\u2013Premier Tech) at the Zonhoven World Cup on January 4, after sliding out late in the snow. A week later, she finished third at the Dutch National Championships, beaten by Alvarado and another Fenix\u2013Premier Tech rider, Puck Pieterse, before her disappointment in Maasmechelen. That 10th-place finish ended a run of 63 consecutive podium finishes for Brand.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Normally, this course would suit her power and stamina, and if the race had been held a month ago, she would have been almost as big a favourite as van der Poel. But her slump has allowed both Alvarado and Pieterse to thrive and, more importantly, grow in confidence. They are both very good technical riders, with Pieterse a bit stronger on climbs, though prone to careless errors, while Alvarado makes fewer mistakes. Both are excellent technical riders.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Others to consider for at least a podium spot are the consistent Amandine Fouquenet (Pauwels Sauzen\u2013Altez Industriebouw), who has had an impressive season but tends to start too fast and then tire at the end; the surprising young Czech Krist\u00fdna Zemanov\u00e1, who finished second at Hoogerheide last Sunday and has been improving every week; the young Spaniard Sarah Casasola (Crelan-Corendon), who looked very strong at Hoogerheide before crashing in the penultimate lap; as well as the improving Zoe B\u00e4ckstedt (CANYON\/\/SRAM zondacrypto) and the always game Shirin van Anrooij (Baloise Verzekeringen\u2013Het Poetsbureau Lions). Unlike the men\u2019s race, this is not a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If I had a farm to bet, I would bet it, and all the livestock on it, on Mathieu van [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":8996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-9093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Van der Poel Huge Favourite to Break Worlds Win Record - \u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2026\/01\/30\/van-der-poel-huge-favourite-to-break-worlds-win-record\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Van der Poel Huge Favourite to Break Worlds Win Record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If I had a farm to bet, I would bet it, and all the livestock on it, on Mathieu van [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2026\/01\/30\/van-der-poel-huge-favourite-to-break-worlds-win-record\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - 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