Former world champion on UCI punishing Wout Van Aert with a super-low starting position in Liévin: "National coaches should decide who they put in which row"

Even though he never came close to threatening Mathieu van der Poel's seventh world title last Sunday, Wout Van Aert still rode impressive World Championships, after all he was the only one able to keep up with MVDP from the distance. Had he started from the front row, could he have won in Liévin? We'll never know. But it's definitely something to think about for the UCI, who want to award "pure" cyclocrosser who regularly compete in World Cup, yet is it worth the sacrifice at a competitive level?

Former cyclocross world champion Niels Albert provides his view of this dilemma in Het Laatse Nieuws column:"It was the big question before, during and after the World Championship: should Wout van Aert have been given a better starting position? At the moment, the regulations protect the pure cyclo-crossers and if I have to choose, that will remain the case. You don’t want ten road racers suddenly starting on the front row next year because they also feel like doing the Cyclo-cross World Championships."

"On the other hand: Wout is not just a road racer. The UCI should take his merits for the sport into account a bit more," the former rider believes. "Now they only look at the cyclocross points he has collected, but they could also have weighed his road points."

"On the other hand: at whose expense do you let Wout move up? Those other guys have been racing all season for their starting position. Maybe Wout should have raced a bit more. One extra World Cup round could have made a difference. Wout knew that this is the rule."

According to Albert, the coin has two sides and it's not too clear which should be favored. "But that's exactly why we really need to think about the starting regulations. Times have changed. You're increasingly seeing top riders who only ride a limited program in the winter. A solution could be to give each country the starting positions it deserves, but that the national coaches can decide who they put in which row."