"Wout van Aert can come closest to Mathieu van der Poel" - Belgian coach defiantly backing Visma star ahead of CX World Championships
Cyclocross
This weekend, the 2025 Cyclocross World Championship are a mouth-watering prospect for cycling fans. Mathieu van der Poel starts as favourite, but after the announcement earlier this week that Wout van Aert will also now take part, the Dutchman isn't likely to have things all his own way in Lievin.
The decision of Van Aert's participation was a relatively last minute one. But now the call has been made, Belgian national coach Angelo De Clercq is confident the Team Visma | Lease a Bike star has as good of a chance as anyone in stopping Van der Poel. "Wout van Aert can come closest to Mathieu van der Poel," De Clercq defiantly declares to Sporza. "The World Championship circuit is really a circuit for men with substance. Then Wout naturally comes forward. Although Van der Poel is of course also someone with a lot of substance, what can't he do?"
Given those two multi-discipline superstars are expected to battle for victory, that then leaves the rest of the race fighting for the last spot on the podium. De Clercq also sees plenty of hope for the Belgian's here too. "We have 8 Belgians who qualify for that," he predicts. "I am thinking for example of Emiel Verstrynge and Joran Wyseure , who respectively came 2nd and 3rd in Dendermonde on a very tough course."
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The 2025 UCI #CycloCross World Championships preview is out! 🌈
— UCI Cyclocross (@UCI_CX) January 29, 2025
270 riders from 55 countries, 7 UCI World Champion titles to be awarded and some big names ready to make history on the start list... 👀
Everything you need to know below! 👇#Lievin2025
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- You are completely wrongvappaxbipmv05-04-2025
- Tadej has a little more chance. It will be an exciting race and the most important thing is that no one gets hurt.
maria2024202405-04-2025 - Whatever happens tomorrow... it'll be a hell of a raceslappers6605-04-2025
- Exactly Tadej, the cancer of modern society. Full of good-for-nothing people who gain visibility and importance on social media mocking, humiliating (and worse things) to earn money. But it's the follower's fault, no followers, no "influencers".maria2024202405-04-2025
- Great commentCaralladas05-04-2025
- i’m such a sucker for those group-hug, happy ending moments between competitors, largely because it’s so WASN’T that way in my younger, stronger days. (on that note, i have this hope that somewhere down the road, maybe fifteen or twenty years, a middle aged wout and mathieu will go for a pleasure ride together in flanders, and reminisce about the days when they were the young, strong monsters that stalked the cobbles.)OCexile05-04-2025
- Just like Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Ronde van Vlaanderen was/is NOT on MAX. Get your facts straight.Ben04-04-2025
- You might bounce more for the same power, but not the same speed. Sending 20 kgs over a jump at 20 kph will fly just as far as 10 kgs at the same speed. Again, Galileo demonstrated this.acem8204-04-2025
- So, you're saying that doing a bunch of small hops on a bike is easier if you're heavier? Why do people buy lighter bikes, then? Why do they generally feel better and faster? An appeal to "rhythm" is not helpful either, as the right "rhythm" might be on the lighter or heavier side of things, and as it varies, it's likely a wash either way. Then we are left with the physics truth that it takes less power to lift lighter things than heavier things.acem8204-04-2025
- No, weight doesn't affect the ability to go into the wind at all. It's all CdA vs power at that point. For example, it's "obvious" that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one. But, absent wind resistance, it's not true (Galileo demonstrated this). An appeal to "obviousness" doesn't matter when the physics is clear. And yes, you have to be able to hold everything else constant, or you can't determine anything! So, imagine a 300 watt rider at 80 kgs with a CdA of 2.0, then imagine that same rider at 70 kgs with a CdA of 2.0. (Assume ideal tire pressure for both, same bike.) Which one can ride over a bumpy road fastest? The lighter one, as he doesn't have to lift as much. That's also why when they test bikes on 5 star cobbled sectors, the MTB goes faster than even a cobble-build road bike. Even though rolling resistance is higher on a flat road, and the CdA is junk, it smooths out the cobbles, allowing the person to not lift as much as they otherwise would.acem8204-04-2025