27/10/2022

Start fees "only for Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert", lack of finances an issue in Cyclocross Lars van der Haar says

Cyclocross is a discipline that is not easy to all, with sponsorship money and salaries not reaching the levels it does on the road. Many times, the riders also have to finance their own trips to many races overt he calendar, before his win at the Nacht van Woerden, Lars van der Haar has mentioned that.

"If you do eight or nine races, everyone has the energy and financial capital to ride them," van der Haar said in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad. "Now there are so many that you can quickly draw up the balance. Why would you go to this race so far away? That costs me so much money. There are plenty to ride in the Netherlands and Belgium, so it doesn't matter that much for the points."

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He is most likely referring specifically to the World Cup. Earlier this month van der Haar travelled to the USA for the Waterloo World Cup, but opted out right after, skipping Fayetteville in order to focus on the European calendar, and at the same time forego the standings. 7 out of the 14 World Cup rounds will be away from the Belgian and Netherlands, 6 of those in countries who do not border neither. This makes it complicated to finance all the trips when added up.

Start fees frequently "fuel" the star riders' trips, but that is not the case for the European Champion. “There aren't any. Only for Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, but that is unofficial. And not just in Vale di Sole, you know, but that doesn't matter. And we don't get any money for a certain ranking anymore either, that was ago from 2008 or so," he concluded.