"I also think I wasn't much slower than him" - Wout van Aert rues nightmare start after losing out to Mathieu van der Poel at CX World Championships
Cyclocross
Wout van Aert has been rewarded for his last minute targeting of the 2025 Cyclocross World Championships with a silver medal. Not the Rainbow Jersey he had dreamed off perhaps, but nevertheless plenty of reason to be positive.
Arguably the deciding factor of the race was the start. Whilst eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel had the front after just a couple of corners, Van Aert, having started in the 4th row, was immediately caught up in traffic. “It was really against me,” Van Aert told VTM NIEUWS post-race. “I was completely boxed in and almost hung in the fences in the first corner. It took a long time before there was space and I could start moving up. Of course I had hoped for a different scenario, but I also knew that this possibility existed. I tried to stay calm and start my race.”
Being the fighter that he is though, Van Aert worked his way back up through the field, picking off rider and rider and eventually emerging as Van der Poel's nearest challenger in 2nd. "I kept believing and tried to ride as fast as possible, to keep putting pressure on Mathieu. I also think I wasn't much slower than him. But in the second half of the race you know that it almost has to be bad luck to still have a chance. As expected, I wasn't faster than him, but with a deficit it's really difficult," he analysed.
“It is not without reason that I took my hat off to him at the finish”, Van Aert adds in conclusion, showing admiration to his long-time rival. “Nobody thought that the record would be equalled. In a way I am also glad that I was there today. Mathieu first, me second. As if it was meant to be.”
| 01 | van der Poel Mathieu | - | 01:02:44 |
| 02 | van Aert Wout | - | + 45 |
| 03 | Nys Thibau | - | + 01:06 |
| 04 | Nieuwenhuis Joris | - | + 01:15 |
| 05 | Verstrynge Emiel | - | + 01:53 |
| 06 | Aerts Toon | - | + 01:56 |
| 07 | Vanthourenhout Michael | - | + 02:00 |
| 08 | Wyseure Joran | - | + 02:03 |
| 09 | van der Haar Lars | - | + 02:09 |
| 10 | Sweeck Laurens | - | + 02:28 |
| 11 | Kamp Ryan | - | + 02:44 |
| 12 | Orts Lloret Felipe | - | + 02:45 |
| 13 | Iserbyt Eli | - | + 03:32 |
| 14 | Vandeputte Niels | - | + 03:40 |
| 15 | Doubey Fabien | - | + 03:47 |
| 16 | Kuhn Kevin | - | + 04:10 |
| 17 | Venturini Clément | - | + 04:22 |
| 18 | Mein Thomas | - | + 04:49 |
| 19 | Funston Scott | - | + 05:00 |
| 20 | Hendrikx Mees | - | + 05:15 |
| 21 | Ronhaar Pim | - | + 05:31 |
| 22 | Bertolini Gioele | - | + 05:35 |
| 23 | Menut David | - | + 05:54 |
| 24 | Boros Michael | - | + 06:08 |
🇫🇷 #Lievin2025
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) February 2, 2025
Wout's a 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫. ⚔️
After a difficult start, he fought his way back to the front and took a well deserved podium spot. 🥈
Congratulations to Mathieu van der Poel. 👏 pic.twitter.com/kVrqD3cp3H
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- In Track and Field, there's Usain Bolt in the sprints and Kenya's Kipchoge in the marathon. Though Bolt can quite easily beat Kipchoge in the 100m dash, he probably won't even finish a marathon. Tadej won't beat Mathieu in a sprint, yet he wins the TDF while MVDP languishes in 50th place. Both are great champions in their respective fields, but my admiration goes to Tadej for trying.FredMan23-03-2025
- They went into the race as co-leaders!frieders323-03-2025
- He can win that sprint if he plays it right but leaving tha gap was ridiculous ! A spring after 6+ hours isn't a guarantee for MVDPfrieders323-03-2025
- The climbs are steeper on Flanders giving Pogi the advanatge as we saw before when he won!frieders323-03-2025
- VDP is best in a short sprint, so Pog was purposely leaving a gap in hopes that VDP wouldn't have enough to sprint for 310 meters at the end of 300 KM. Kwiatkowski did the same thing to Sagan at that same point and won because of it.acem8223-03-2025
- Ganna started winning the occasional end of season sprint a few years ago. It's been fun watching him change from a TT specialist into something more.RidesHills23-03-2025
- hey look, an insinuating question from 2 years ago! I mean, sure, announcers mentioned tail wind, but whatever. That wasn't going to matter today, not with the 2 best classics riders of the past many generations (you have to go back to the 70s to see two people dominate like this, and even Merckx and de Vlaeminck never managed to win 2 each in the same year, the way Pogacar and Van der Poel have done in the past 2 years).RidesHills23-03-2025
- I like my statistics: Pogacar and van der Poel have won 13 of the last 18 Monuments and are tied at 7 each (MvdP won his first long enough ago that it doesn't show the more recent utter domination.) Oh, and the last 2 road world championships. Oh, and one of them also won the last Tour and Giro, while the other won the CX and Gravel world championships. I mean, anyone reading this site knows all this, but it's worth being amazed by it all every now and then.RidesHills23-03-2025
- Congratulations to all three on the podium. The final seconds reminded me of E3 a few years back, when tiny little Pogacar had no chance against van Aert and van der Poel, but that was just the last few seconds of an incredible race. Everything from the launch on the Cipressa to crossing the line was amazing.RidesHills23-03-2025
- All 3 of them went to doping control
Front24223-03-2025