Is Mathieu van der Poel winning races “in zone 2” helping or hindering cyclo-cross?

Adam Becket

News editor at Cycling Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on at the upper echelons of our sport. This piece is part of The Leadout, a newsletter series from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. As ever, email adam.becket@futurenet.com - should you wish to add anything, or suggest a topic.

The good news for his rivals is that Mathieu van der Poel doesn’t plan to dominate the Christmas cyclocross period. That pronouncement came after the world champion turned up to his first cyclocross race of the season on Sunday, the Zonhoven World Cup, and won by well over a minute. Good news then, this wasn’t the plan, he just demolished everyone by accident, he’s just training.

"Yes, it was a great victory today, but I preferred to save myself and stay in zone two throughout the race. Because I plan to do some high intensity training this week,” Van der Poel said post-race. How charming, he wasn’t even really trying, just staying in zone two. He could have had a chat, or stopped for a coffee halfway round. He went on to win at Mol in the Superprestige series on Monday, too.

The reappearance of the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider has boosted a CX season that was threatening to not capture the imagination of the non-hardcore fans among us, but at what cost?

Zonhoven on Sunday was the fifth round of the UCI’s CX World Cup series, a collection of 11 races between late November and late January (Italy’s round was cancelled thanks to stormy weather) which are supposed to bring the best ‘crossers together. However, the world champion has been absent until now, and will ride just 9 more events this season, his lowest in a non-injury affected season ever. His great rival Wout van Aert was supposed to ride just six times, but will already miss one due to illness, so make it five.

In their absence the riders a rung down - from Van der Poel and Van Aert certainly - have flooded in, using their absence to battle for wins. Eli Iserbyt, Michael Vanthourenhout and Niels Vandeputte have won rounds of the World Cup to date this season, with Iserbyt leading the X2O series and Lars van der Haar winning the Superprestige competition as things stand. It feels a bit before the Lord Mayor’s Show, though.

The problem is simple - when they choose to compete Van der Poel and Van Aert are on another level to their competitors. Even Tom Pidcock, the only other person to win a CX World Championships in a decade, appears to be a rung below, and he isn’t even racing this season. Van der Poel has won six rainbow jerseys in the past nine years, and is aiming for number seven in February. They appear too good to bet against.

The reason why they don’t turn up to many CX races anymore is likely the same thing that makes them so good when they do pin a number on: their road racing calendars. Van der Poel’s main goals are not in the sand or mud of December, but on the cobbles and bergs of March, April and May.

That’s not just me speculating, that’s what Van der Poel’s dad, Adrie - himself a former CX world champion - thinks too. “I think the difference is that those guys ride such a tough road program,” he told Wielerflits at the weekend. “You can also see it uphill. They can ride one, two teeth bigger and then they just ride away from the rest. That road program plays a role.”

However, they are also just on a different plane. Before Van Aert and Van der Poel took road racing seriously, they were dominating CX all the same. Is this good for the sport? There appears to be a widening gap between the haves and the have nots, with little prospect of these CX specialists taking the battle to the multi-discipline stars. The ‘big three’ - Van der Poel, Pidcock and Van Aert - are undoubtedly good for raising the number of TV audiences and fans when they are introduced - hence the large appearance fees they get - but would the action not be more exciting if there was tighter competition when they appear?

It cannot be easily solved. Competitions have been rearranged to tempt Van der Poel and Van Aert to race more, but there is more money and more sponsor pressure to be perfect for the road season. Something has to give, and it’s CX which suffers.

When the world champion does deign to race, it undeniably makes people switch on, but cyclocross needs to find a way to do this outside of the biggest names. It’s a problem which won’t go away.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com, or comment below.