Mathieu van der Poel wants to ´make the gap smaller to Tadej Pogacar - "I sometimes ride behind him too"
Cycling
Mathieu van der Poel will have to face Tadej Pogacar once again next spring and this motivates him to improve further. The cyclocross World Champion has been thus far unmatched in his first two races, but he was asked about the spring this Monday after the Zilvermeercross Mol and tackled the subject of the Slovenian.
"...I have the impression that people still like the fact that I am racing again. That is a nice feeling," van der Poel told Wielerflits. “Because of what I have achieved on the road, I think that people now look at my performances differently. You can say that it is dominant, but you sometimes see that on the road with Tadej Pogacar. I sometimes ride behind him too.”
On the road van der Poel is one of the very few riders who is also occasionally dominant, winning both cobbled monuments with ease this year - although largely this was because Wout van Aert and Visma were heavily affected by crashes and illnesses.
In 2023 he lost to Pogacar in Flanders, and this year the UAE Team Emirates took a leap in his performances. This can make him unbeatable in 2025 in any race that features proper climbing - even if it's the ones that suit the Dutchman well. “Look, I know how it can feel, and that is precisely the reason to work even harder and make the gap smaller. That is what I am going to try to do towards the spring classics. It is a nice challenge and a nice point of work for myself.”
At the World Championships course Pogacar was better suited to handle all that climbing, and van der Poel knew it would've been very hard to succeed. “Yes, certainly at the World Championship on the road it was not only behind Pogacar, but with a whole peloton. That did not work either. You noticed that if someone stands out, there is not always anything you can do about it. But you always have to assume that someone can be beaten. I will definitely try to do that in the spring.”
There have been comments over the past day that van der Poel looks stronger than last year in his debut in Zonhoven. He answers: "... I don't look at it, but I do feel that I've become stronger. Compared to before, I can ride one or two gears higher on the tough sections, purely on power. I can feel that. Last year before the cross season I had already had some indications that I was okay in training, I didn't really have that this year. It was more of a question mark than then, so in that respect I didn't really expect it.”
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Two races, two days, two wins 🏆🏆
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) December 23, 2024
World champion Mathieu Van der Poel has made a typically dominant start to his cross season.
📸 Getty Images pic.twitter.com/naFd7DGUyj
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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