"It feels very frustrating" - Van der Poel and Van Aert cost Dutch veteran cyclocross world titles

The cyclocross world has been dominated by Mathieu van der Poel in the last few years, whilst he and Wout van Aert dominated the late 2010's and early 2020's. This came in the way of many riders who had their own ambitions, including Lars van der Haar who believes he hasn't been able to win that World title due to the generational competition he had to face.

"It feels very frustrating at first, of course. Because yes: we're good, but they're better. I've always been someone who's very level-headed about that. So: if someone is better, you have to compete and you have to show it. Fine. And they were," van der Haar said in the Live Slow Ride Fast podcast.

The Dutchman is going to retire in the coming month from the sport, after having achieved a lot in cyclocross. This includes two European Championships, four national championship titles, and victories in all of the cups in the discipline. He has achieved more than most, but had the legs to win World Championships as well.

The most prominent of which in 2016 where he was beaten by Wout van Aert, 22 years of age at the time, in what was his first world title. This one was his own fault however, he admits, suffering a mechanical in the race after he was off the front by himself. "In 2016, in Zolder. Because it's just... it's not that I lost it there, but it's the way I ruined my own chances".

Van Aert was never again in position to win the rainbow jersey, and in the one year where the two were missing from the cyclocross worlds, Tom Pidcock took the victory in Fayetteville over van der Haar. These generational figures have come in the way two times of the Dutchman, who will nevertheless still have one final shot in Hulst in the space of two two and a half weeks. "Objectively speaking, it might have cost me one or two world titles. You know, if someone's better, they have to compete. And they did. They defined and changed cyclocross. I had to grow with them," he concluded.