"You simply can't learn that" - Dutch pundit praises Tibor del Grosso following triumph over Wout van Aert

Under the cover of Mathieu van der Poel at Alpecin-Deceuninck, the Belgian team seems to be growing a true diamond in the rough. Tibor del Grosso is no longer just a potential future big winner in cyclocross, he has already become one, and his strong and cold performance against Wout van Aert in Heusden-Zolder earned the praise of Thijs Zonneveld.

"He has a kind of killer in him. In the previous races, you sometimes saw him running away, or making a mistake on the last lap and thinking 'nevermind'. But then you also saw that this wasn't the maximum he could do," the Dutch pundit argued on the In de Waaier podcast. "And then there's a day when Van der Poel isn't there and Van Aert is, on a course that suits him well, and then he still manages to surpass himself."

On the 23rd of December, del Grosso and Kevin Kuhn attacked the start of the race in the very fast track whilst Van Aert lost 20 seconds on the first lap, commiting technical errors and being stuck behind other riders after a bad start. The Visma rider then came through and dropped everyone else, except for the Dutch champion.

In scenes reminiscent of his past rivalry with Mathieu van der Poel - the two will face each other today in Loenhout - Van Aert and del Grosso went into the final straight and sprinted to the line. The Alpecin rider took the win.

"On that last lap, Van Aert really pushed hard in a few spots, where Del Grosso was really under pressure, but he kept coming back. Then they were pushing in the last few hundred meters, and then you basically knew it. You simply can't learn that," Zonneveld argues. "This is simply the X-factor".

Del Grosso at age 22 and Thibau Nys at age 23, current Dutch and Belgian national champions already, are astonishingly similar. Both are having their rise in road cycling almost at the same time, both thrive in the explosive and technical courses, and even when it comes to their occasional back issues they can be closely compared.

However, Zonneveld argues also that Del Grosso is patient, unlike what some have argued. "His mother said 'everyone sees him as a bit of a show-off, and he doesn't care. But he does care a lot.' So he was really bummed about it and was devastated that it wasn't good enough yet. So he's a guy who, on the outside, seems like he doesn't give a damn, but of course that's not true. Otherwise, you can't reach this level," he concluded.