God-like Van der Poel crushes the competition at World Championships with embarrassingly hard start, Van Aert overcomes nightmare opening for silver

Is Mathieu van der Poel the best cyclo-cross rider of the moment? Absolutely. The best ever? Well, he now matches Erik De Vlaeminck in world titles. In the men’s elite race, the Dutch rider utterly destroyed his competition—mostly Belgian rivals—and rode almost the entire race solo. Wout van Aert, starting from the fourth row, had a disastrous start but kept pace with the leader and finished second. Thibau Nys edged out Joris Nieuwenhuis for bronze.

After Van Aert announced his participation, hopes for a Belgian stunt grew by the day. Even Van Aert himself admitted on Sunday morning that he had a "tiny bit of hope" for the world title. But ten seconds into the race, that hope was gone. Van Aert and the Belgian team needed a strong start—but got the opposite.

Van der Poel launched from the front row, powering to the lead on the uphill asphalt section. Van Aert, stuck on row four, was trapped, unable to move up. By the time he hit the field, he was 36th, barely making up any ground. Belgium tried to slow Van der Poel down, with Michael Vanthourenhout and Laurens Sweeck attempting to disrupt his rhythm. But the Dutch rider quickly broke away, leaving them behind.

Read more below the video

Nieuwenhuis powers into second place behind Van der Poel

As the smoke from French fireworks filled the air, we searched for Van Aert along the sidelines. Meanwhile, Van der Poel had already blown the race apart in the first lap, opening a massive gap. He quickly built a 20-second lead over Sweeck, with Nieuwenhuis, Vanthourenhout, and Felipe Orts trailing at 24 seconds. Van der Poel’s expression said it all—he curled his lip, fully locked in, and was just getting started.

In lap two, the big question was: who would be best of the rest? Nieuwenhuis once again showed his strong legs, surging into second place after Sweeck slipped up. He was soon joined by Vanthourenhout and the fast-closing Thibau Nys, while Van Aert was still outside the top ten. By the end of the lap, however, he and Emiel Verstrynge had bridged to the chase group fighting for silver.

Read more below the video

Van Aert battles through with torn shorts and pedal issues

By the end of the second lap, Van der Poel already had a 45-second lead, but behind him, something else stood out—Van Aert was racing with torn shorts. Had he crashed at the start? He also struggled with his pedals, an issue he had been warned about, and one that his Visma | Lease a Bike teammate Fem van Empel had also faced on Saturday. Despite the setbacks, he managed to stay in contention, keeping his medal hopes alive.

After three laps, Nieuwenhuis looked the strongest among the chasers, riding at a steady pace. But when they hit the finishing straight, Van Aert launched an explosive move, blasting past Nieuwenhuis, Nys, Vanthourenhout, Sweeck, and Verstrynge in spectacular fashion. He was now the clear favorite for second place, after two phenomenal laps—but that disastrous opening lap…

Read more below the video

Van Aert rides (almost) as fast as Van der Poel

The 45-second gap that Van Aert had after the first lap remained unchanged by lap four of eight. The Belgian kept pushing, and in this brutal cyclo-cross race, it was the road riders who came out on top. Van Aert dropped everyone for second place, while Nys was only followed by Nieuwenhuis. The more traditional cyclo-cross specialists struggled to keep up.

As if he had sensed the challenge, Van der Poel picked up the pace around the halfway mark. The chasers set their fastest lap in lap four, yet the gap grew to 51 seconds. By the end of lap five, the difference was even bigger—55 seconds for Van Aert, who had managed to gap Nieuwenhuis and Nys by 20 seconds. That set the stage for the final lap, where the race order remained unchanged. At the finish, Van der Poel celebrated, Van Aert was left disappointed, and Nys edged out Nieuwenhuis for third.

Results World cyclo-cross championships 2025 - elite men

Read also

Van der Poel feels his body changing after turning 30: "I couldn't handle these workouts at 23"

🎥 The 10 World Championship battles between Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert: The ultimate cyclo-cross rivalry since 2012

Nys (who promises to compete in Worlds) could fulfill bold 2004 prediction, Van der Poel flips him "middle finger"

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get every week the latest news about CYCLING in your inbox!

Subscribe