Mathieu van der Poel ahead of the World Cross-Country Championships: Like an express train against trams

A scene from the World Cup in Benidorm, Spain, went viral: Mathieu van der Poel sprints up a tarmac uphill section, whizzing past several competitors at double speed and almost making them look like amateur riders. One video underlaid his sprint with racing car noises, another marked his bike with jet propulsion. However, Van der Poel also had to work hard, as he had dropped back after an early defect.

On this day, however, the Dutchman simply had no luck: he later crashed after a collision with a marker pole, eventually finishing in fifth place. Some may even have seen this as a relief: van der Poel can still lose in the terrain. Whether things would have gone differently without the defect and crash is questionable. On the other hand, winner and permanent rival Wout Van Aert was also strong in Benidorm. But to seriously distance van der Poel, special circumstances are needed at the moment.

Van der Poel: Twelve victories from 13 races

Last weekend, however, the cross world returned to normal: van der Poel won the sixth round of the X2O Trofee in Hamme on Saturday, followed by victory at the World Cup finale in Hoogerheide on Sunday. These were wins number eleven and twelve this season - in a total of 13 starts so far. Only Benidorm stands out as a zero.

"I'm not so concerned with this series. I just have to win the season in Tabor," said van der Poel after the World Cup in Zonhoven, when his record was still ten wins from ten races. The small Bohemian town of Tabor is hosting the World Championships this weekend. And van der Poel is the heavy favourite - especially as his closest rival Van Aert will not be taking part.

Although there are serious rivals in Michael Vanthourenhout, Eli Iserbyt, Joris Nieuwenhuis, Pim Ronhaar and Thibau Nys, van der Poel has always had two or three extra power levels so far this season: When he puts his brute power on the pedals, hardly any of his rivals can follow his crazy accelerations. A kind of express train in a duel with trams - which occasionally makes his victories look remarkably easy. Anything other than van der Poel defending his world title would be a sensation.

Scandal about fans at the World Cup in Hulst

The fact that he dominates cyclocross is nothing new. According to statistics sites, he has won 170 of his 219 elite races since 2015, a win rate of around 78 per cent. This season, however, van der Poel looks a notch above the rest. On normal days, Van Aert has already felt this: in their first meeting shortly before Christmas in Antwerp, van der Poel distanced the Belgian after three of six laps and won as a soloist with an impressive 29-second lead.

The cyclocross scene is sometimes split into two camps. After all, sporting class that degenerates into absolute superiority brings plenty of success, but rarely wins the hearts of the fan masses. After all, the sport thrives on competition and surprises. Cyclocross and van der Poel currently only deliver all of this to a limited extent. On the other hand, he has extraordinary skills that are rarely seen - and that can also attract spectators. So there are those who admire him and those who see a decline in the competition and criticise boredom - only the battle for second place is exciting. At the World Cup in Hulst in the Netherlands, the audience even booed and jeered at van der Poel. However, the Dutchman reacted just as inappropriately: He spat at the group of fans.

His statements on cyclocross, which he made in December in the Dutch magazine Ride met:

I actually only ride for fun. And of course the world championship title is still an important goal. I actually see the rest of the season more as a winter activity. There's not much left for me to win in terms of sport.

Honest, yes. Particularly tactful: rather no.

Accordingly, it seems questionable how long van der Poel will remain in cyclocross. After all, he is now also one of the big names in road cycling. As a reminder: The 29-year-old is not only the reigning world champion in cyclocross, but also on the road. In addition, there are heavyweight successes at Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

Closing the circle in Tabor - with a break from cyclocross?

Whether a winter with a number of cyclocross races is good preparation for the road season, however, has been debated for years. So far, however, van der Poel has remained loyal to cyclocross. "But sometimes a winter without cyclocross can also be good, a winter of mental recovery," he said recently after his victory in Hoogerheide, when the topic came up once again. Since the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, van der Poel has been plagued by back problems.

Another victory at the World Championships in Tabor would be his sixth title. He would be just one World Championship victory away from equalling the record set by Erik De Vlaeminck, who won seven World Championships between 1966 and 1973. And in a way, Tabor is the starting point for van der Poel's great cross-country career: he won his first World Championship title in the elite class there in 2015.

This in turn has fuelled discussions in recent days as to whether van der Poel will soon retire from the cyclocross scene. He himself remained surprisingly vague: "I'll have to think about it and see," said van der Poel in Hoogerheide when asked whether he would still be racing cyclocross next year. He added: "First elite cyclocross world title in 2015, now back in Tabor. It could come full circle, but I don't know yet." What is also clear from his statements, however, is that van der Poel himself hardly seems to doubt his victory.