Which Mathieu van der Poel knows perfectly. He is also the outgoing winner of the event. He also won three other times, from 2016 to 2018. Will he win directly for his return? Those who have made the news in cyclo-cross these last two months, with spectacle and suspense at each event, fear it. The world champion is in a class of his own. A step above the competition. But his state of form remains unknown before we see him at work for the first time in the plowed fields.
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Even if he is used to returning home with the winner's bouquet from his first cyclo-cross of the season. A habit that he has continued since his youth years, starting with juniors. When he doesn't make his mark from the start, it's generally a bad sign, an indication of an injury. Like in 2021, when he was beaten by Wout van Aert in Dendermonde, before almost immediately ending his season, due to back and knee pain.
We will see more clearly after his return, Sunday, for the first of the eleven cyclo-crosses that he has planned. A program that he plans to approach in worse condition than twelve months ago, when he resumed at the same period. In order to arrive in better condition for the World Championship in Liévin, at the beginning of February, for what will be his only real objective, to win a seventh rainbow jersey among the elites and equal the record of Eric de Vlaeminck.
“If he has the same level as last year, the others will have a problemwarned Niels Albert in the columns of The Latest News. And even if he is not 100%, he will play for victory. His opponents must challenge themselves to finish as close as possible to him. But maybe it's beatable? They must maintain ambition. Including Michaël Vanthourenhout, in very good form currently.”
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The return of Mathieu and Wout? It doesn't stop me from sleeping, even though I know it will be more complicated to win.
We saw it last weekend, with his victory in Herentals and especially the next day in Namur, where he won for the third time. What does he think of the return of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert? “We know that it will now be more complicated to winhe replied last Sunday at the Citadel. Finishing second or third behind them is also a good thing. Especially since they are not taken into account for the regularity rankings. Their return doesn't keep me from sleeping. It’s also a good thing that they’re coming back, given everything they brought to our sport, to this discipline. I focus on me, on my career, not on them. I'm not the one who's desperate for media attention, but I sometimes find it a shame that they get more without having competed in a cyclo-cross event yet.”
After his three victories in a row (Dublin, Herentals and Namur), Michaël Vanthourenhout will aim for a fourth this Saturday, in Hulst, in another round of the World Cup which he dominates. Before his reunion with Mathieu van der Poel, Sunday, in Zonhoven. Still within the framework of the World Cup.
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