“Not only I would lap him, he’d be taken out of the race” – Mathieu van der Poel challenges Jasper Philipsen to try cyclocross

Mathieu van der Poel did not need Benidorm to start a rivalry with Jasper Philipsen. He needed a moment. And once the words were out, the story was no longer about who won a race. It was about who would dare the other into unfamiliar territory first.

“Not only I would lap him, but everyone else too. They sometimes underestimate the level of cyclocross,” Van der Poel said in conversation with Sporza, laughing, when the idea of Philipsen trying a cross was raised.

It was not said with malice. It was said with the kind of confidence that only comes from someone who knows exactly how hard his own sport really is. And it landed exactly where it was meant to: as a challenge.

The exchange came in the wake of Benidorm, where Van der Poel had added the race to his programme at the last minute and then blown it apart with an early solo. But the bigger story came afterwards, when the focus shifted away from the result and towards the people who had pushed him there in the first place. “My teammates forced me all week to race, because they wanted to come and watch,” Van der Poel said, explaining why he even lined up in Spain.

That pressure did not just come from random voices in the team. It came from riders like Philipsen, who wanted to see what would happen if Van der Poel did show up. “That definitely played a part in my decision,” he said. “Although I did hesitate for a long time, because my training is very important.”

Once Van der Poel had raced and won, the dynamic flipped. The man who had been pushed into Benidorm suddenly became the one doing the pushing. “We’ve been pushing him for a few years to ride a cross as well,” Van der Poel said. “I think Heusden Zolder would be a perfect race for him.”

Philipsen did not rush to accept. And Van der Poel knew exactly why. “Because of the 80 percent rule he would be taken out of the race,” he said. “Not only I would lap him, but everyone else too.”

It was half joke, half warning. Cyclocross is not a novelty discipline you simply drop into. And Van der Poel, more than anyone, understands how brutal the gap can be between watching a race and surviving one.

Philipsen, for his part, did not leave it there either. If Van der Poel wanted him in a cross, then Van der Poel would have to return the favour elsewhere. As a counter, Philipsen floated the idea of dragging his team-mate into a beach race. Different surface. Different chaos. Same logic: see how the other survives outside his comfort zone.

Suddenly, the Benidorm weekend had created something that had nothing to do with who finished first. It had created a standing dare between two of the biggest names in modern cycling.

This is not about contracts or calendars yet. It is about tone. Two riders who are used to winning in their own worlds are now daring each other to step into someone else’s.

Van der Poel has already shown he can cross boundaries. Philipsen has not yet done so. But after that line, it is clear the idea is no longer a joke thrown into the air. It is a challenge that is waiting for an answer.