“You could say that Mathieu is his true love” – Wout van Aert’s wife jokes about bond with Van der Poel

The rivalry between Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel has produced some of the defining moments of modern cyclocross. But according to Van Aert’s wife Sarah De Bie, the relationship between the two goes far beyond a simple sporting duel.

“We’ve known each other since Wout was seventeen,” De Bie said. “But you could say that Mathieu is his first true love,” she joked, in comments reported by Wieler Revue.

It was a tongue-in-cheek remark, but one rooted in a rivalry that has stretched across nearly two decades and hundreds of races.

Van der Poel himself has never hidden just how deeply intertwined their careers have become. Speaking to Algemeen Dagblad, the Dutchman acknowledged that the numbers behind their rivalry are impossible to ignore.

“We’ve been racing against each other since the junior ranks, or even before that,” Van der Poel said. “The duel with Wout has been going on for a very long time.”

Those encounters now span youth categories, elite championships and multiple disciplines, but cyclocross remains the stage where their rivalry feels most deeply ingrained.

Their latest meeting came last Saturday at the Cyclocross World Cup Antwerp, where Van der Poel once again emerged as the dominant force.

Despite starting well back on the grid, the world champion quickly moved through the field before making a decisive early move to ride clear. From there, he controlled the race to take a comfortable solo victory, his second World Cup win of the winter.

Van Aert’s race unfolded very differently. A puncture midway through the contest derailed his fight near the front and left him losing time on a demanding, sandy course. He eventually crossed the line in seventh place, while Van der Poel’s own late puncture never seriously threatened his advantage.

Antwerp will not be their last meeting this winter. Further World Cup clashes await in Hofstade, Loenhout, Mol and Zonhoven, before attention inevitably turns towards the spring classics on the road.

The scale of their shared history underlines why even light-hearted comments attract such attention. As professionals, Van Aert and Van der Poel have already raced each other 149 times in cyclo cross alone, with the total climbing close to two hundred when their youth careers are included.

It is that extraordinary familiarity that continues to define their relationship — part rivalry, part inevitability — and ensures that every new encounter adds another layer to a duel that refuses to fade.