"This year he's not on the same bus as us" - Niels Vandeputte honest about differences between Mathieu van der Poel and cyclocross teammates

Mathieu van der Poel is the unquestioned leading light in the men's cyclocross scene. A six-time world champion, Van der Poel has taken victory in all five of his crosses this winter, further establishing himself as a cut above the rest of his rivals.

As it turns out, even within the Alpecin-Deceuninck set-up, Van der Poel does things completely differently to his teammates, as revealed by Niels Vandeputte on the podcast Live Slow, Ride Fast. "This year he's not on the same bus as us," Vandeputte admits. "But last year he was. We would change an hour before the race to warm up on the rollers. Then he's still watching the women's cross or chatting with Christoph Roodhooft."

"Then we cycle for twenty minutes on the rollers and when we're done, Mathieu is still in the bus," continues Vandeputte, noting the fact Van der Poel can turn up and win so brilliantly without even properly warming up. "When we've changed again, he gets out of the bus with us and we drive to the start. He doesn't like warming up for a cross. But yes, we've seen that it works for him."

Inspired by Van der Poel's success, Vandeputte has tried to follow a similar path. "I tried it last year in Loenhout. That cross has one of the longest starting lanes of the year. I didn't like it that much, standing so cold at the start and then immediately doing a full sprint, haha," he recalls of that experience.

It's clear that Vandeputte has a lot of respect for Van der Poel though, not only Mathieu either, but also Adrie van der Poel, the father of the world champion. "I really learned a lot from him. It's also nice that when Mathieu is racing again, he's also on the race. We always have a chat then," Vandeputte concludes warmly.