Mathieu van der Poel's 30 years of age a major benefit for current cyclocross domination: "If I trained at 23 what I trained this week, I probably wouldn't have been as good"

Mathieu van der Poel has turned 30 years old this week, but there is no slowing down the World Champion who only seems to get stronger by the year. After beating Wout van Aert in what was their second and final battle of the cyclocross season, the Alpecin-Deceuninck opened up about what has changed since his younger years.

He admits that he did celebrate a few days ago, but that did not seem to hamper him in any way ahead of this weekend - the last before the Lièvin World Championships. "I felt it the day after, but I don't know if that was really the age. I celebrated it well and I think it is a special occasion, so I do dwell on that," he shared with In de Leiderstrui after the Maasmechelen World Cup, which he won in dominant fashion.

"It is true that I am suddenly no longer in my twenties, so then you suddenly feel a lot older. Hopefully I will have a few more good years on the bike". But at the same time... "I do notice a bigger engine. If I trained at 23 what I trained this week, I probably wouldn't have been as good at the weekend. Now I notice that I can handle it. I think that's also a natural evolution from racing on the road".

This capacity to handle more training seems to play a big role in the evolution of the World Champion, not just to stay at a high level but to increase it at the same time as the new generation which is taking over the sport. Not just the capacity to recover, but at this point in van der Poel's career he definitely does not have the same pressure of when he was younger, he has a lot more experience both in the road and cyclocross - and you can never neglect his move to Spain, which for the past two years saw him remain healthy much more consistently. His technique and ability to avoid crashes on the bike is another aspect which with time has helped him remain healthy and have less setbacks.

In late December he did have a collision with a race poll during the Exact Cross Loennhout which resulted in a broken rib, but this also did not seem to slow down the World Champion who convincingly won both races he took part in since that day. "In the end I did feel it, but it didn't hinder my performance. The main goal was not to fall. That's not the intention anyway, but I may have done this cross a bit less wildly than I would normally dare to do. It didn't hinder that much, but it's still something different than doing endurance training on the road".