"I don't think we should use the word of power yet" - Lars van der Haar on UCI president's threat

David Lappartient came out with powerful words this weekend regarding the cyclocross riders, threatening to exclude riders who do not ride World Cups from the World Championships.

“No, that remains a sporting choice. If I start doing everything, if I continue to do everything, I think I will ultimately destroy myself completely," Lars van der Haar told Wielerflits following the Dendermonde World Cup. The way I'm doing it now, I think I can keep the results higher and maybe even still have a chance to win the rankings at the end of the year. Michael [Vanthourenhout] is now completely missing and if Eli [Iserbyt] has one more advantage, it will all come down to the same thing (as in 2022-2023, ed.).”

Van der Haar leads the World Cup but will skip several races, he's admitted. Teammate Thibau Nys has done so too. However this spreads deep in the field, and in the women's field not a single rider scored in all 14 rounds, bringing valid arguments that most riders simply are not interested in the incredibly large schedule of the World Cup taking into consideration their other goals throughout the season.

The declarations of the UCI president also fail to take into account that the discipline's biggest stars such as Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Tom Pidcock, Marianne Vos and more all race very busy road programs and brief schedules in the cyclocross season. Effectively, if the rule became reality it would be of a big detriment to cyclocross, not to add that most likely the riders would deeply dislike being obliged into racing all events. Furthermore, riders from North America, riders with injuries or illnesses could also be punished for not taking part in an event.

Despite this, the backlash from the riders and coaches has not been too harsh. “I don't think we should use the word of power yet, we should have an open discussion between the UCI, the riders and the teams," van der Haar said as a reponse.

"I also think it won't be too bad. I'm also dropping four Superprestige races to ride four World Cups," he argues. "It is not that we are deliberately dropping the World Cup, the World Cup is still a very important classification.”