Danny Nelissen: "Because of those crashes we didn’t get to see the Van Aert-Van der Poel battle on the cobblestones"

Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert are headlining the cyclocross over the past few days, and the same was expected of the past spring. However, because of crashes, Wout van Aert was sidelined from the cobbled classics and the World Championships altogether.

The two were the main topic of a recent conversation. “A smart cyclist will take that with him into the coming years, so that Evenepoel does something back for Van Aert," Michel Cornelisse, manager of Fenix - Deceuninck, said in the Wielerflits podcast.

The Belgian has helped the likes of Evenepoel at the Olympic Games this year quite a lot, but over the years also Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France and even Olav Kooij as a leadout man. This earns him a lot of companionship with his teammates that can be quite valuable for the future.

However in this cyclocross season, there isn't much that can be done against Mathieu van der Poel. Former pro Danny Nelissen argued: “He’s not going to catch up just like that. I think he has adapted himself somewhat to that role. I am convinced that he can really make that connection, precisely because he is Van Aert, but because of those crashes we didn’t get to see the Van Aert-Van der Poel battle on the cobblestones. That also applies to Evenepoel and Vingegaard towards the Tour, who fell in the spring…”

“Let’s hope that those crashes stay away a bit in 2025," he hopes. "And that we will then get more of that man-to-man battle. Now you had a season in which Pogačar and Van der Poel didn't encounter much, and the others did.”