"The cross itself is actually the least of it all" - Father Adrie comments on Mathieu van der Poel's cyclocross season so far
Cyclocross
Mathieu van der Poel capped off his 2024 cyclocross season with a dominant performance at the World Cup Besançon. The rainbow jersey wearer showed his class, defeating Toon Aerts, who finished second, and Niels Vandeputte in third.
While Van der Poel’s commanding display secured the win, his father, Adrie van der Poel, shed light on the physical and mental toll the season has taken on his son whilst working as an analyst for Play Sports.
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"It's the journey there, the reconnaissance, the warming up, the competition, the cooling down and then the whole ceremony for the top three. Doping control and so on, so you're busy all day long. And then you have to get on the bus and go home, after which the story starts all over again at the next cross. The cross itself is actually the least of it all: you're just busy for an hour. But everything around it makes it intense."
Adrie highlighted the challenges of the intense cyclocross schedule:
"And then the races follow each other very quickly. Mathieu feels that he has already ridden five crosses in seven days. His first cross was great, but after that you could see the difference when he rode against fresher riders. We saw that with Laurens Sweeck in Loenhout, and then the differences are smaller. Then it is up to Mathieu to stay focused. But it is a tiring period. The attention? Mathieu grew up with the attention, so he has learned to deal with that."
Reflecting on Van der Poel’s performance in Besançon, Adrie commented on his riding style and the demands of the course, "You can see it in his way of riding, that he has only ridden a few races. It's staying focused from start to finish. Mathieu wants to do everything perfectly and well, but the difference between a good and a bad lap is also twenty seconds. You have to be in the race from the start and do your own thing, then you don't do crazy things. If you get too excited, you pay for it in cash. Certainly here in Besançon."
Adrie also emphasised the difficulty of the Besançon course, calling it one of the most demanding of the year, "I think this was one of the toughest cross-country races of the year and that it demanded a lot from the athletes. You could see that he couldn't do his thing in the first round, but now he's entered the top eight and then he can also be on the first starting row."
𝑺𝒑𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈! 🧙♂️
— Eurosport (@eurosport) December 29, 2024
Mathieu van der Poel rides to ANOTHER win at the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup in Besançon! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/e4YEGBHDRU
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- chapeau.OCexile01-01-2025
- yeah, i mean, i’ll bring this back to mathieu, which is where it started in this instance. now i realize there are MANY, MANY fans who dislike mvdp (and probably not ALL of them are belgians, but…) and scream and shout whenever van der poel crosses a finish line and completely COLLAPSES in a heap on the ground. they yell “FAKER!” “DRAMA QUEEN!” “DESPERATE FOR ATTENTION!” i can’t make ANY of that jibe with how i’ve seen this guy behave over the last 10+ years. i tend to take it at face value. the guy has a considerable engine and gas tank, and in some cases (amstel gold 2019, et al) he needs to and is willing to empty that tank in a way few others can or will. again, SOMEBODY has to be the best at this, because SOMEBODY is the best at EVERYTHING. mathieu is REALLY GOOD at doing THAT.OCexile01-01-2025
- You mean apart from: Equaling XC WC record Remaining Monuments A respectable number of TDF stages XCO WC Besting XC WC record Olympic gold Maybe in that order, maybe all of them :-)Mistermaumau01-01-2025
- Just like speed limits on the road. It is impossible to exceed them.mobk01-01-2025
- It’s one of those words everyone has a right to use in the way they feel and it is up to the reader/listener to interpret in which way it was intended. Some people or more, others less good at that but in this age many deliberately misinterpret, they (no-one in particular here) know exactly what was meant but it suits agendas to pretend otherwise. That said, limits in sport are used in a multitude of ways and so understanding context is crucial, you can pass your current limit (skill, physical, mental, performance, and improve, it’s something we all do, we have to to get from current to future level. Basically we never can attain the final limit, there is always margin for improvement but we are also always stuck at a limit until we get past it. Inthink what makes champions is that they refuse to accept their current limits and can always surprise by pushing to a new level they don’t know they’ll reach in advance. It is the nature of sport, moving the goalpost limits further and further. We have seen impossible limits come and go, eg in athletics 10s sprint 4m mile 1h semi and soon 2h marathon, 9000 decathlon. With accidents it’s different again, non-fatal ones allow us to learn where limits are or were and see if we can push them more, fatal ones embed an image of defined limits that can’t be altered.Mistermaumau01-01-2025
- thank you! yes, a limit is, by definition, a limit. i made the mistake of speaking figuratively about riding beyond one’s limit, having been led astray by common cycling parlance about “limits.” e.g… A few years back, after losing a horrifically hard cx race to mvdp (in i THINK it was Namur), wout van aert said, “it has always been a great ability of mathieu to be able to ride beyond his limit. i’m capable of riding a very good finale also, but often mathieu can just go deeper than i can…” this talk of “going deep” and “riding beyond the limit” is not scientific, clearly. it’s about some riders being able to cope with a higher degree of pain and discomfort for longer than others. cycling, we all know, is a sport defined by suffering. in many, most, or even all cases, the mind quits before the body absolutely fails — and here i AM speaking scientifically. so, “riding beyond one’s limit” could be understood to literally (or even clinically?) mean having the ability to cope with pain in a way that gets you closer to your absolute physiological limit. we all know, just as humans walking around on the planet, that everyone handles pain differently. cycling is a sport for professional sufferers. but it’s still just a microcosm of the population and some will be better at it than others, and SOMEBODY is going to be the “best” at it. that IS an absolute. now, i dunno if mathieu is THAT GUY, but he certainly appears to be on the short list. thanks for the comment. checking sloppy language is worthwhile and often stimulates thought and discussion. hopefully someone else will say something a lot more interesting about what “limits” mean in cycling than i have. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!OCexile01-01-2025
- 50 mil is not okay, no no. But 20-25 or however many FDJ is investing is perfectly fine Makes sensevappaxbipmv01-01-2025
- Money for the teams goes down, "Oh my gosh, a crisis, what will we do?" Money for the teams goes up, "Oh my gosh, a crisis, what will we do?" The response from "small" team owners (especially Vaughters) is always the same, revenue sharing, capping team spending, and solidifying who gets to be in the upper echelons of cycling. Odd, that is precisely the thing that most benefits them, so they can now compete against the "big" teams, and don't have to worry about being supplanted by smaller teams below them. Odd how that works! -An Economistacem8201-01-2025
- You can't push beyond your limit, even if you're MVDP.Renz01-01-2025
- it’s going to be interesting to see what goals and challenges will continue to inspire van der poel as a road racer. he’s a guy who can’t stand being bored. i mentioned in a comment some weeks ago that it kinda seems like he’s interested in becoming a better climber, experimenting with shedding body mass to see what might be possible. personally, i’ve always wished he would get passionate about TTs. he can obviously sustain massive watts for extended periods, and he has an almost singular ability to push beyond his limit and empty his tank to a stunning degree. additionally, he’s got a beautiful, naturally aero position when he’s on a road bike. on the rare occasions he’s felt like really making an effort — in yellow at the tour and pink at the giro — he finished 5th and 2nd, respectively. and he apparently NEVER practices that discipline, like EVER.OCexile01-01-2025