"Van der Poel’s return gave us confidence": Dutch national coach sees more enthusiastic group after Namur
Cyclocross
Mathieu van der Poel’s return to cyclo-cross concluded on Sunday with victory in the UCI World Cup round in Namur. The seven-time world champion of the discipline beat Thibau Nys to open his campaign in perfect fashion, despite a mid-race crash. For the Netherlands, it is an ideal sign of what’s to come.
Gerben de Knegt, the Dutch national cyclocross coach, spoke about Van der Poel’s first race of the 2025/26 campaign in comments to In de Leiderstrui. He made it clear that his return is a huge morale boost, not only for the push towards an eighth world title to break the record, but also for plans leading up to Hulst.
"Van der Poel’s return in Namur definitely gave us confidence for the upcoming races. The Christmas period is a kind of test for cyclocross riders. If you come through it well, you can move forward with confidence for the rest of the season and the Worlds," De Knegt began.
Alongside Mathieu van der Poel’s season debut, Tibor del Grosso (14th) and Puck Pieterse (5th) also returned to the mud, two other Dutch stars. "You can tell they still need to settle back into cyclocross, but I’m confident the next races will get them going," added the coach, already looking ahead to the Antwerp World Cup.
The race in Antwerp will be held this Saturday, featuring the first clash Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert of this season. "Many riders are really looking forward to this race. And for the spectators, it’s fantastic to have Van der Poel and Van Aert on the start line," De Knegt continued.
"It’s hard to predict which of the two will come out on top," he concluded, before confirming the Netherlands selection for the upcoming World Cup round.
Netherlands men for the World Cup Antwerpen:
- Joris Nieuwenhuis
- Mathieu van der Poel
- Lars van der Haar
- Pim Ronhaar
- Tibor Del Grosso
- Ryan Kamp
- Mees Hendrikx
- Danny van Lierop
- Remon Del Noije
- Jelte Jochems
- Max Rijver
Netherlands women for the World Cup Antwerp:
- Lucinda Brand
- Inge van der Heijden
- Manon Bakker
- Puck Pieterse
- Aniek van Alphen
- Ceylin Alvarado
- Leonie Bentveld
- Denise Betsema
- Annemarie Worst
- Larissa Hartog
- Lauren Molengraaf
- Shirin van Anrooij
- Bloeme Kalis
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- More to the point, it isn't his remaining goal.Renz08-11-2026
- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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