Van der Poel’s fourth elite world championship completes Dutch sweep

The 2021 UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Ostend, Belgium concluded on Sunday with an enthralling race between Wout Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel that swung back and forth in the early stages before the Dutchman went solo to take his fourth elite title and third in a row. Van der Poel’s win completed a Dutch sweep of all four championships, the first time it has happened since women’s races were added in 2000. The Dutch not only won all the races, they also earned eight of the 12 podium spots, only the elite men’s race without more than one Dutch rider on the podium.

MvdP vs WVA

Everyone was expecting Sunday’s race to realistically consist of van der Poel vs Van Aert. Each had three elite men’s world titles, van der Poel had two Junior world titles and Van Aert claimed a U23 world title. Van Aert took five wins in the 2020-2021 season, while van der Poel took nine.

The Course

The distinguishing feature of the Ostend course was a long beach section right after the start, one that required a lot of running. A 20 percent grade bridge tested the riders as well. The second half of the 2.9 km circuit was tricky, and caused plenty of grief for riders on Saturday. It was another cold day on the coast, but no rain and less wind.

Wout Van Aert led onto the beach, pulling van der Poel, another Dutchman and four Belgians. Soon it was the two main protagonists riding ahead of the four Belgians. WVA and MvdP completed Lap 1 14 seconds ahead of Toon Aerts, two-time World Cup winner and current leader of the Superprestige series with one race remaining; Michael Vanthourenhout, who took his first career World Cup win this season; Quinten Hermans and Laurens Sweeck.

On Lap 2, Van Aert stayed on his bike in the sand to push away. The bronze group swelled with more Belgians, a Dutchman and Tom Pidcock. A big crash put van der Poel further behind.

Van der Poel had 15 seconds to make up in six laps. Toon Aerts had raced himself into a bronze position. The Dutchman pitted on Lap 3 and chipped away at his Belgian rival’s gap. But a front wheel puncture threatened Van Aert’s bid to win; the Belgian was 11 seconds behind when he grabbed a new bike.

Lap 4 saw Van Aert labour to bring back the Dutchman, who pulled his foot out on the 20% bridge. Pidcock was honing in on Aerts for bronze. By the mid-point of the race, van der Poel had an 8-second lead.

Van Aert’s sand superiority let him down on Lap 5, as van der Poel picked up more seconds. Toon Aerts could feel Pidcock breathing down his neck, and the Brit made the junction on Lap 6.

Aerts dashed away from the Brit on the sand. Up front van der Poel continued to pry out a bigger lead, heading into the penultimate lap with 22 seconds.

Van Aert couldn’t budge the gap to his rival, finishing 37 seconds in arrears. Toon Aerts held off a late charge from Pidcock to earn his third consecutive bronze medal. Six of the top-8 were Belgian.

2021 UCI Cyclocross World Championships
Gold) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherlands) 58:57
Silver) Wout Van Aert (Belgium) +0:37
Bronze) Toon Aerts (Belgium) +1:24