Van der Poel hungry for cyclocross season start - 'I feel that I am ready'

He ended his season in mid-September and then deliberately stepped away, following pneumonia during the Tour de France that meant he never really returned to his best level throughout the autumn. “My season was a bit shorter than other years, so I could take a little more rest,” Van der Poel explains.

The reset was followed by a gradual rebuild. “After those four weeks, I resumed training in Belgium. Two weeks later, I moved to my usual base in Spain to keep building and gradually increase the intensity.”

What he missed most was not fitness, but racing rhythm. “That is a bit too strongly put. I really do like training. But it is true that I missed competition,” he says, responding to the idea that he might have been fed up with training. Namur, with its steep ramps and technical sections, is not the softest re-entry point, yet he talks about it like a course he has been waiting for.

“It has been a long time since I rode in Namur. And I really like that cross. I feel that I am ready.”

The preparation has been minimal in one very specific sense: time spent on a cyclocross bike. “Two,” he says, asked how many dedicated cross sessions he has done. “One on Tuesday and one yesterday, Thursday. That is not much, but it was the same last year, and in the end, it proved enough. Hopefully, it is enough now too.” 

He does not try to cool expectations, he just places them in context. “The expectations can be high, I set them high myself. Although personally I think that right now I am one little percent less than last year, I think it should be enough to immediately fight for the win.”

His winter schedule is set at roughly a dozen races, chosen for practical and personal reasons rather than volume for its own sake. “I did take the courses into account and chose the races I like to ride. That part of it is in the wider Antwerp area is a nice bonus,” he says. When he is in Belgium, the priority shifts. “If I am in Belgium anyway, I prefer racing over training.”

Beyond the weekly goals, the season still points to one clear appointment. “The World Championship in Hulst is the absolute main goal, like every year. That I can become the sole record holder this time is a direct consequence. Not the goal in itself,” Van der Poel says.

He also looks around at a field that has evolved while he was away, and he names the rider he sees as the current reference. “Everything points to Thibau Nys being a bit of the new benchmark,” he says. 

For Namur specifically, he highlights the usual course specialists and a rider he feels has moved forward. “Specifically for Namur, you always have to mention Michael Vanthourenhout and Toon Aerts. And Cameron Mason has taken a step. Challengers enough.”

And then there is the winter rivalry that always draws the biggest attention, with five races against Wout van Aert on the horizon. 

“Like every year, right. We both have our own build-up, especially towards the spring. Then we run into each other now and then. How we compare to each other this winter will become clear,” Van der Poel says. “Hopefully we can give the public some spectacle.”