A hat trick of victories over five days for Mathieu van der Poel

Thursday’s Boxing Day sixth round of the 2024-2025 UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Gavere, Belgium, a heavy course of muddy climbing. It was van der Poel’s third win on the trot over five days, a perfect record in his first trio of CX races. The world champion will finally meet Wout van Aert tomorrow in a round of the Exact Cross series. Runner-up Michael Vanthourenhout plumped his series lead. Ian Ackert was the top Canadian in 22nd.

Preliminaries

Michael Vanthourenhout was top of the table after earning two of the five rounds. Toon Aerts, still without a Big Three Series victory this season, trailed by 22 points. Van der Poel won last year’s Gavere round. X2O Badkamers Trofee series leader Eli Iserbyt’s bad back has translated into no podiums in six races–he skipped Gaverse despite sitting third in the standings. Fifth place Laurens Sweeck was also absent.

Without Junior and U23 races in Gavere, the Canadian contingent was a half-dozen: Evan Russell, Fabian Merino, Gunnar Holmgren, Ian Ackert, Liam Sargent and Alexander Woodford.

Filipe Orts had a poor start but Thibau Nys stole the hole shot on Lap 1. Van der Poel was patient in moving up. Nys hopped on a new bike at the 1:30 mark but retook the lead, Vanthourenhout on his wheel. The usual suspects lurked behind: Lars van der Haar, Pim Ronhaar, Superprestige series leader Niels Vandeputte and his teammate van der Poel. Nys crashed and recovered in third place as Vanthourenhout pulled the gang and van der Poel nestled on his rear wheel. Ackert was 28th.

Ronhaar led Vanthourenhout, Baloise Trek Lions teammte Nys and van der Poel into Lap 2, Vandeputte and van der Haar in a group 10 minutes behind. Everyone needed a fresh bike. With sunglasses gripped in his teeth, Ronhaar lost contact and bounced off an inflatable barrier. Nys struggled to keep up. Ackert rose to 23rd.

On Lap 3 of 7 van der Poel bid his mates adieu. At the line he was nearly a half-minute ahead of Vanthourenhout and Nys. Aerts was on a bummer of a race. Ackert was steady at 23rd.

The world champion made a fine save on a fast corner at the beginning of Lap 4. The podim battle not only involved the series leader and the European champion, but van der Haar and Emiel Verstrynge as well.

Van der Haar parted ways with Verstrynge and trailed van der Poel’s closest chasers by 14 seconds heading into Lap 5.

Just as van der Haar came aross, Vanthourenhout skipped away, not liking the odds. With Aerts far behind and Iserbyt and Sweeck absent, Vanthourenhout was in position to balloon his World Cup lead and van der Haar poised to move into third overall.

It would be Nys who pushed away from his teammate on the bell lap. As he took a bike in the pits, van der Poel received the applause of the other teams. After two races, van der Poel is 11th in the standings, right behind Thursday’s third place Nys.

The next round is December 29 in Besançon, France.

2024-2025 UCI World Cup Round 7, Gavere
1) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherlands/Alpecin-Deceuninck) 1:05:29
2) Michael Vanthourenhout (Belgium/Pauwels Sauzen) +0:26
3) Thibau Nys (Belgium/Baloise Trek Lions) +0:49
22) Ian Ackert (Canada) +5:05
27) Gunnar Holmgren (Canada) +5:53
54) Alexander Woodford (Canada)
58) Evan Russel (Canada)
69) Fabian Merino (Canada)
79) Liam Sargent (Canada)