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"
Cyclocross
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."
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In most sports the worldchampion is the strongest one on the day with equal chances for everyone at the beginning. I don't know another sport where they are using a system which rewards participation, a particupation bonus like in primary school.
Then suggest they do heats with qualification as they fo in other events with too many participants to give everyone a fair and equal chance. Stop making these kind of posts if you don’t suggest a credible alternative.
In most sports they have a season long series, so the best over a year is the World champion; not a 'one off' event were the best can have an off day and not win I wish cycling had this model, as you can't fluke a season long series... .
There are so many different sports, and equally many where this is not the case. Football has all sorts of differing championships. Swimming and Athletics are more like cycling, cyclocross is different again. Track cycling is often like tennis. BMX is more like rowing but in the end it’s hard to name more than a couple of sports that have exactly the same championship qualifying and set-up. Yes, in motorsport you usually have to participate in a long line of yearly events to win a championship but when is the last time you saw a driver do any 2 of F1, Rallye, Nascar etc in a season? Practically impossible so don’t forget, if you want to see the likes of WVA and MVDP or even Pidcock and others in several disciplines, it may not be wise to bog them down into choosing one.
yeah, there are some sports that do a season long WORLD CUP WINNER, or some version of it, but even most of THOSE also have a World Championships EVENT. cyclocross is in that category (though the value of the world cup is watered down there due to there being THREE separately scored championship series).
Everyone wants to grab a slice of pie, hapoened in boxing, happening in golf now, trying to happen in club football. Will we need to add undisputed champion in cycling too one day?
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- Watch out Urska, I think he’s taken a liking to MVDP ;-)Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- Totally!Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- It will be interesting to see how he goes on the cobbles, so far he's looking very strong.awp04-04-2025
- if there is an actual weakness in wout even when completely healthy, it’s that he’s in his head too often. this has been pointed out many times by much more acute observers of cycling than ME, certainly. it may be that he’s been like this since he was a little kid. we are who we are. or that he was shaped by having faced van der poel SOOO many times. mvdp has zero second thoughts. he wastes no time at all on doubt. that has, in the past, led him to do some pretty insane things and make mistakes that wout would never have committed. but it also makes him a killer. you can see wout’s split seconds of doubt and hesitation everywhere in their head to head battles. those hesitations spill over into other races at times like dwars, when doubt creeps in. i believe that currently he is still coming back from physical problems due to injuries, but even when he’s full strength the mental game is an area of potential concern, AND potential improvement.OCexile03-04-2025
- Not only the public, just about every analyst and commentator had been piling it on. Under the circumstances I’d even say he’s showing real character. Not sure likeable Tadej would manage as well during a longer rough patch.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Took a while but we finally have a more nuanced analysis.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- If I remember right, it was those same hungry journalists selling us a different story less than a year ago about the bleak future of Dutch (men’s) cycling with no possible successor for MVDP ;-)Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Good, hopefully Jonas goes also so we get a nice duelvappaxbipmv03-04-2025
- right? i think it’s hungry journalists that fuel this, and i understand the jam they can be in trying to create stories, but you’d hate to think ANYONE is failing to appreciate how RARE someone like van der poel is (or how LUCKY we are to have both mvdp and pog racing at the same time). a little perspective is a good thing…OCexile03-04-2025
- Anyone know how long that 213km ride took? Coz without that the segment speeds don’t reveal anything surprising. If it took him Less than 5h ok but otherwise it was just some interval training for him.Jumpyjohn03-04-2025