"I wanted to hold Mathieu back a bit at the beginning" - Michael Vanthourenhout tried in vain to slow up Van der Poel at CX World Championships

Two-time European champion Michael Vanthourenhout wasn't able to make the Cyclocross World Championships podium for the third time in his career in 2025. The Belgian eventually finished in 7th, but early on in the race, tried his best to help team leader Wout van Aert by doing what he could to slow down Mathieu van der Poel.

Van Aert, having started on the 4th row, needed to work his way through the field to get to race-winning contention. Hoping to buy his compatriot some time to do this task, Vanthourenhout attempted (in vain) to delay inevitable Van der Poel acceleration. "I wanted to hold Mathieu back a bit at the beginning, but you could see that he really wanted to be in the lead and push hard," he explains post-race in quotes collected by Sporza. "You can't stop that. He was already gone on the first bridge. Nothing you can do about it."

Speaking on his own performance, Vanthourenhout has a good explanation for his somewhat lesser level on Sunday afternoon. "It was a very tough and very technical cross," he notes. "I knew since Thursday that it wouldn't be 100%. I got a little sick and on this course you have to be 100%."