Is Van der Poel avoiding Hulst because of last year’s spitting scandal? "We shouldn’t take it the wrong way"

This Sunday, December 22, Mathieu van der Poel will kick off his cyclo-cross season in Zonhoven, Belgium. Interestingly, he is skipping the Vestingcross in Hulst, which essentially means the Dutchman is opting out of starting his campaign in his home country. Could his decision be linked to last year’s infamous spitting incident? IDLProCycling.com spoke to the organizers about his absence.

"That definitely plays a role," organizer Bram De Brauwer said when asked about this year’s attendance numbers. Compared to last year, the numbers are significantly lower. The reason? De Brauwer believes it’s due to the absence of Mathieu and Wout. "We shouldn’t beat around the bush. Tomorrow, Zonhoven has Mathieu, and Mol (on Monday, December 23, ed.) even has both Wout and Mathieu. Ticket sales for Mol skyrocketed when it was announced they would both be racing."

De Brauwer saw this same effect with his cyclo-cross race last year. "When Mathieu made a late announcement that he would race here, we sold five to six thousand tickets in the final 72 hours — just because of that announcement. So, that definitely plays a role, but we still have ten thousand visitors coming, which is still very good compared to other races. None of our editions in Hulst have ever had fewer than ten thousand visitors."

Hulst reached out to Van der Poel

De Brauwer hasn’t received any response from Van der Poel’s team. "We reached out to his management ourselves. We hope it has nothing to do with last year’s incident. We would do everything to prevent that from happening again. Mathieu has won here six times, and we’ve always had a good relationship with him. He even met his girlfriend here, so we were kind of disappointed that he won’t start here. But there must be a reason for it."

"These are top athletes, after all, and we completely understand. We shouldn’t take it the wrong way as an organization, so we hope it has nothing to do with last year. That was an unfortunate coincidence that we couldn’t control. We distanced ourselves from it and stood up for the riders. It must have been for other reasons."

Hulst has taken measures to prevent spitting incidents

In the meantime, the Hulst organization has implemented measures to limit incidents like last year’s. "A lot more security personnel and stewards. That’s in response to last year’s incident and with the 2026 World Championships in mind." Indeed, Hulst will host the Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2026.

The organization is eagerly looking forward to that edition, in which Van der Poel is expected to participate. "If he becomes world champion in Liévin, he will tie Roger De Vlaeminck’s record, and then he could win his eighth title in Hulst, making him the sole record holder." An extensive interview with the Hulst organization, looking ahead to their upcoming World Championships, will be published on this site soon.

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