"We normally have the favorite to win in Mathieu van der Poel" - Dutch national team coach Gerben de Knegt ahead of cyclocross World Championships

The Netherlands have revealed their lineups for the Cyclocross World Championships and they are quite special. The Dutch can dream of taking all gold medals in the Elites and under-23 events, being spearheaded by Mathieu van der Poel.

''Among the men, we normally have the favorite to win in Mathieu van der Poel, but of course a race has to be ridden again first," the team's national coach Gerben de Knegt said in a press release issued by the federation. "What is special is that in addition to Lars van der Haar, we could also compete for a podium place with Pim Ronhaar and Joris Nieuwenhuis.''

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Effectively, a full podium sweep is not impossible, as happened in Hoogerheide just this Sunday. Although the same scenario wasn't seen in the women's race, there are little arguments against a Dutch victory in the women's race - as their athletes dominated the whole season, and will rather race against each other. “We now have four candidates for the world title with Fem van Empel, Puck Pieterse, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Lucinda Brand," he confirms. 

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"All of whom are at least podium worthy. Internationally you see more and more new names from other countries, but normally we should also be able to aim for the highest possible in this category. We benefit from a hard race where the strongest riders emerge." Blanka Kata Vas has surged to a surprising second place in this weekend's final World Cup, and may end up being the main rival for a team that has the higher ground when it comes to taking the top step.

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“Cyclocross is currently leaving much of its potential unused” - Adrie van der Poel suggests changes to the UCI World Cup calendar

“He is 10% better than us” - Pim Ronhaar explains why Van der Poel is a step above the rest

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