“Without that mistake, it would have been a sprint” – Mathieu van der Poel reflects on Gavere duel with Thibau Nys

Mathieu van der Poel admitted that a single moment proved decisive in his latest victory at the UCI Cyclocross World Cup Gavere, suggesting the race could easily have been settled in a sprint without a small error from Thibau Nys.

“It was difficult to make the difference,” Van der Poel said in his post-race interview. “Thibau was really strong. I honestly didn’t expect that I would be able to drop him. After Nys launched his attack, I decided to really ride one lap all out. He made a small mistake in the wheel, which gave me the space. Otherwise, I think it would have been a sprint.”

Van der Poel and Nys had been locked together for much of the race, with repeated accelerations on the Gavere climbs failing to create separation until the decisive moment.

Van der Poel’s comments underlined how fine the margins were after a race defined by pressure rather than constant attacks.

The world champion also addressed speculation about a possible appearance at the next World Cup round in Dendermonde. “We did have doubts,” he said. “But after talking it through, we decided to stick to the plan. Normally, I won’t be starting.”

Despite his victory, Van der Poel narrowly missed out on taking the World Cup leader’s jersey. Laurens Sweeck finished eleventh in Gavere, but retains the lead by a single point, sitting on 161 points to Van der Poel’s 160 after four wins this season. Van der Poel will not be present in Dendermonde on Sunday, where both Nys and Wout van Aert are expected to start.

Nys, meanwhile, was upbeat despite the error that ended his winning hopes. “I enjoyed it,” he said afterwards. “I wanted to ride my own race and not have regrets afterwards that I’d been too passive. Quite early on, I already felt that I couldn’t really push Van der Poel to his limit.”

“In the final laps I had to focus on holding the wheel, but on the lap where he went, I missed my pedal twice. Even without that mistake, I probably wouldn’t have been able to follow him. The fatigue was definitely there at the end. I had very cold feet and maybe didn’t really know what I was doing anymore.”

With both riders acknowledging how evenly matched the duel had been, Gavere once again highlighted how little separates control from chaos on one of the calendar’s most demanding courses.