"You hang your head for a few seconds, but I fought for an hour" - Battling Toon Aerts rues bad luck at cyclocross World Championships
Cyclocross
Mathieu van der Poel won a record-equalling seventh cyclocross world championship this weekend with another dominant display, with Wout van Aert finishing second and Thibau Nys taking third place. So the Dutchman finishes the cyclocross season unbeaten, and this was perhaps the most complete and invincible version we have seen of Van der Poel.
Behind the top places, Toon Aerts finished in sixth but suffered from bad luck during the race. The 31-year-old Belgian reflected on his performance, telling Sporza, "My start was good, but then I was overwhelmed. The course was more treacherous than expected. Once I got into my rhythm, it was one flat tire after another."
"That was really swearing, because I had a good day. That kind of setback is not easy, but I'm used to other things, with that suspension."
Despite the difficulties, Aerts remained determined throughout the race. "You hang your head for a few seconds, but when you see someone you go for it again. I fought for an hour," he says proudly.
Aerts was European champion back in 2016 and had previously secured bronze medals at the cyclocross world championships in 2019, 2020, and 2021. However, there was no medal for him this time.
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- i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.OCexile23-03-2025
- Whatever the result, I believe the strategy by UAE to launch Pogacar was absolutely the right one. Unfortunately, they just were not able to execute it the way they must have planned, being all over the place at the start of the Cipressa.Cooldude23-03-2025
- They are without doubt not just the best two classics riders of this generation, but amongst the best of all time. MvdP is more suited to MSR and PR (which Pog has yet to race), while Pog is now almost untouchable at LBL and Lombardia. RVV is the only one where both basically have an equal chance to win.Cooldude23-03-2025
- bravissima!
maria2024202423-03-2025 - According to Tadej's Strava upload, he went up the Cipressa at an average speed of 37.6kph. Rocket ship! He did the 5.63km verified 'Cipressa' Strava segment in 8:59 minutes, which has a 4.3% average grade and total elevation gain of 229m. Naturally, he got the Strava KOM.Pogboom23-03-2025
- In Track and Field, there's Usain Bolt in the sprints and Kenya's Kipchoge in the marathon. Though Bolt can quite easily beat Kipchoge in the 100m dash, he probably won't even finish a marathon. Tadej won't beat Mathieu in a sprint, yet he wins the TDF while MVDP languishes in 50th place. Both are great champions in their respective fields, but my admiration goes to Tadej for trying.FredMan23-03-2025
- They went into the race as co-leaders!frieders323-03-2025
- He can win that sprint if he plays it right but leaving tha gap was ridiculous ! A spring after 6+ hours isn't a guarantee for MVDPfrieders323-03-2025
- The climbs are steeper on Flanders giving Pogi the advanatge as we saw before when he won!frieders323-03-2025
- VDP is best in a short sprint, so Pog was purposely leaving a gap in hopes that VDP wouldn't have enough to sprint for 310 meters at the end of 300 KM. Kwiatkowski did the same thing to Sagan at that same point and won because of it.acem8223-03-2025