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The fate of the modern multi-disciplinarian might lie in the mud-flecked mitts of six-time cyclocross champion Mathieu van der Poel.
The success or slump of a season encompassing a crammed ‘cross schedule, the cobblestone monuments, Tour de France, Olympic Games and more might decide whether MVDP continues to allow cyclocross and classics to co-exist.
It could also point the future path for fellow male riders like Wout van Aert, Tom Pidcock, Thibau Nys, Tim Merlier, and more.
“‘Cross in the winter takes a lot of energy,” Van der Poel said Sunday after he ran riot at CX worlds in Tábor.
“If it turns out that I can perform even better on the road by skipping cyclocross, then I will do that.”
Also read:
- Van der Poel hints end is nigh on CX career
- Van der Poel glorious in sixth elite gold medal at CX worlds
The undisputed “king of ‘cross” and most prolific one-day racer of the decade MVDP is one step into his most ambitious season to date.
He decimated the field in Tábor in the absence of cross-discipline archival Van Aert and outside-threat Pidcock to drew one world title closer to the male cyclocross record held by all-time great Eric de Vlaeminck.
Will Van der Poel return for a raid on rainbow jersey number seven and a slot in the history books?
A season that will stretch from spring to September, monuments to mountain bike, might make the decision for him, and could either confirm or challenge the notion that cyclocross can co-exist with the classics and road racing.
“My focus is also more and more on the road, that is where my big goals lie. And maybe still on the mountain bike,” Van der Poel told Wielerflits on Sunday.
“Sometimes I’d like to have a longer period in which I can simply train. But it’s not a decision I can make myself.”
Mathieu van der Poel at Cyclocross World Championships (CX):
2012 MJ :
2013 MJ :
2014 MU :
2015 ME :
2016 ME : 5️⃣
2017 ME :
2018 ME :
2019 ME :
2020 ME:
2021 ME :
2022 ME : ❌DNS
2023 ME :
2024 ME :— Cycling Statistics (@StatsOnCycling) February 4, 2024
Van der Poel stubbornly stuck to the script the winter by bulldozing through a full CX schedule. Van Aert and Pidcock toned it down and reallocated winter wattages into their road schedules of spring.
MVDP was rewarded for his bloodymindedness Sunday with a shot at history and a chase for De Vlaeminck’s super-seven.
But his ability to come close this year to his near-untouchable assault on San-Remo, Roubaix, and road worlds of 2023 could frame his winters forever.
Van der Poel hinted more than once in recent months the toll of the muddy winter was beginning to wear thin.
After years of focus on CX, the 29-year-old has come to see he can crush the classics, and he wants more of that to come now he’s hit his career zenith.
“I still enjoy cyclocross, it’s something I really like to do. But it’s not just the ‘cross. It’s everything that comes with it. It takes a lot of energy. Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it to have beer poured over you every race,” he said.
“That shouldn’t influence the decision too much, but I can’t just let it pass.”
Van der Poel will take the briefest of breaks February before he reboots for a likely road season debut with Alpecin-Deceuninck in early March at Strade Bianche.
The Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix follow just weeks behind.
Any hint of fatigue or race-weariness will be noted by multi-disciplinarians like Van Aert and Pidcock.
Van der Poel, Van Aert and the dying multi-discipline dream
Can the classics and cyclocross be successfully combined? Van der Poel made it possible in 2023, but it will get harder every year from here on in.
Multi-discipline winning-machines like Fem van Empel, Puck Pieterse, Lucinda Brand, and Zoë Backstedt are keeping the cross-discipline dream alive in women’s racing.
But the two- or three-discipline racer seems a dying breed in the men’s peloton.
Pidcock and Van Aert chose the classics over ‘cross this winter. Van Aert learned the hard way in 2023 when cyclocross left him short on watts and the wining edge at Flanders and Roubaix.
His and Pidcock’s decisions to rarely race CX this season to save stoke for spring is a tell for where team and personal ambitions lie in the relatively short careers of an increasingly specialized pro peloton.
Indeed, the retirement Sunday of three-time cross world champion and celebrated cobblestone crusher Zdeněk Štybar could foreshadow the beginning of the end of riders racing from November through October.
It’s only a chance at CX immortality that’s holding a gravitational pull on Van der Poel.
“[Leveling De Vlaeminck] is the only motivation to start racing again in the winter. The rest of the cyclocross season isn’t important. There is only one race that counts and that is the world championship,” Van der Poel said Sunday.
“Showing that I am the best is not something I am concerned with,” he continued.”I’m just working on that record. Everyone still talks about that De Vlaeminck record. That’s something people just don’t forget. Even many years after his career, people talk about it.”
Mathieu van der Poel at Cyclocross World Championships (CX):
2012 MJ :
2013 MJ :
2014 MU :
2015 ME :
2016 ME : 5️⃣
2017 ME :
2018 ME :
2019 ME :
2020 ME:
2021 ME :
2022 ME : ❌DNS
2023 ME :
2024 ME :— Cycling Statistics (@StatsOnCycling) February 4, 2024
Van der Poel hasn’t even pinned down his road program for 2024, let alone fully considered his 2024-25 CX goals. Team manager Christoph Roodhooft told Wielerflits the debate hasn’t even made it into the Alpecin-Deceuninck boardroom.
If Van der Poel is able to add to his massive collection of monuments this spring, his CX schedule of this winter will be excused, and most likely repeated into the next winter.
If the flaming Dutchman fades and fizzles in Flanders and Roubaix, his sixth rainbow jersey will be metaphorically muddied, an unnecessary fatigue ahead of a seven-month road program.
Pidcock and Van Aert will consider their decisions correct.
But whatever MVDP says, it’s not like he’s going to just stop cyclocross full-stop.
What Dutchman would let the brilliant Belgian De Vlaeminck get the last laugh?
“As far as I know, it has never been discussed [that he will stop cyclocross],” Roodhooft said Sunday. “Never say never, of course, but I don’t see it happening immediately.”
