“If you want to avoid risks, there is really only one solution: stay indoors” - Van der Poel’s boss blunt on crash risk after Van Aert’s winter-ending fall

Cyclocross risk has returned to the centre of the conversation this winter, sharpened by Wout van Aert’s latest serious crash and the abrupt end of his campaign. But inside Alpecin-Premier Tech, panic has never been part of the response.

For team manager Christoph Roodhooft, crashes remain an unavoidable part of elite cycling, regardless of discipline, surface, or calendar slot. Asked about the inherent danger of racing, his view was blunt and unsentimental.

“In the end, you can run risks anywhere, even in training. You can say that there is the competitive aspect, and that is of course true. But if, as a rider, you want to avoid risks everywhere, then there is really only one solution: stay indoors,” Roodhooft tells Wielerflits.

Those words were not aimed at any individual rider or team, but they land in a winter where cyclocross risk is again under scrutiny. Roodhooft’s stance is clear. Risk is not something to be selectively feared. It is a constant that must be managed, not eliminated.

That pragmatic outlook has underpinned a remarkable Christmas period for Alpecin-Premier Tech, whose riders won almost every elite men’s cyclocross race over the festive stretch. Even so, Roodhooft was careful not to frame that success as inevitable or assumed. “The past few weeks have exceeded our own expectations.”

The results did not rely solely on Mathieu van der Poel’s familiar dominance. Tibor Del Grosso and Niels Vandeputte also converted opportunities when the world champion was absent, a depth of success Roodhooft had not pencilled in beforehand. “Somewhere we had hoped for one standout result for Del Grosso and one for Vandeputte, but they both won two races, which is very good.”

Efficiency, rather than superiority, was the internal takeaway. “They struck at the right moments, which is not always easy.”

Among those performances, Del Grosso’s emergence stood out most clearly. Yet even here, Roodhooft avoided definitive proclamations, preferring measured assessment over hype. “Whether Tibor can actually grow to that level, we will have to wait and see. But there is something there.”

The qualities that separate frequent winners from strong riders are not always visible in numbers alone. “Riders who win a lot often have a certain X-factor. And that Tibor has that, you cannot deny.”

That places Del Grosso firmly among the leading figures of his generation. “In that respect, he has become the challenger to Thibau Nys.”

For Roodhooft, the significance lies as much in age as in results. “It has been a long time since we have had such a talent at that age in the team. That can only be a good thing.”

While winter results continue to pile up, Roodhooft remains resistant to drawing straight lines between cyclocross dominance and spring readiness. “The relevance of winning all those races is something different from being completely in order or good enough for the spring.”

He was clear that victory alone does not equate to completeness. “Just because he dominates these races now does not mean that he is in order in every respect. And vice versa, if he had lost a race, that also would not have meant that he is not good.”

Internally, there was no sense of alarm or over-correction, just continuity. “It was simply as it should be. Beyond that, I did not see anything special with Mathieu.”

That same philosophy extends to crash risk, even in a winter shaped by high-profile incidents elsewhere in the peloton. For Roodhooft, there is little value in selective fear. “You can run risks anywhere.”

Cyclocross, training, road racing, all carry exposure. The response is not avoidance, but balance. “His cross campaign was compact, but in between he was also able to take his rest.”

The wider takeaway from Roodhooft’s remarks is not indifference, but realism. Crashes remain part of elite cycling. Dominance does not guarantee perfection. And risk, whether embraced or feared, cannot be engineered out of the sport.

Sometimes, the only alternative is the one he jokingly dismissed from the outset.