Dominant Van der Poel leads from start to finish to win in snowy Zonhoven

Mathieu van der Poel continued his 100% win rate in the 2025/2026 cyclocross season as the world champion stormed to victory in the UCI World Cup in Zonhoven, on a snowy course which he led from start to finish ahead of his teammate Tibor Del Grosso and Emiel Verstrynge.

It’s the ninth victory of Van der Poel’s season and his twentieth consecutive victory in the cross field, a streak which runs back to January 2024, when he finished fifth in Benidorm after crashing on the penultimate lap.

Benidorm could be the next cyclocross fixture for Van der Poel on January 18, as the next round of the World Cup is on the world champion’s provisional schedule, though whether he races in Spain will depend on how far along his preparations for the road season are by that point.

Van der Poel started the race in Zonhoven like a rocket, winning the holeshot and very quickly opening up an advantage, with only Toon Aerts able to initially follow the world champion.

However, after three minutes of racing, the world champion was beginning to surge clear of the European champion with a chase pack forming behind.

By the end of the opening lap, Van der Poel had a 0:11 advantage over Aerts, with a trio of Emiel Verstrynge, Thibau Nys and Niels Vandeputte at 0:15.

By the end of lap 2, Van der Poel extended his lead to 30 seconds over the chasers, who had caught Aerts and been joined by Tibor Del Grosso. On lap 3, Del Grosso looked to be pulling clear into 2nd place, but a crash for the Dutch champion saw him caught by the chasers.

Van der Poel suffered a flat rear tyre on lap 4, sparking some jeopardy into the race as his advantage over the chasers shrank. However, Del Grosso suffered a puncture, and Nys suffered a crash which wrecked his handlebars and his race. 

Despite this, the Belgian champion battled on, running the majority of a lap to the pits, by which time, he had dropped to 21st place. Consequently, following the eventual fourth lap, Verstrynge and Del Grosso pulled clear from the rest of the chasers in the fight for the podium.

Heading onto the final lap, Del Grosso had pulled clear of Verstrynge, putting himself as best of the rest behind his teammate Van der Poel. In the end, Van der Poel’s margin of victory was 0:45 over Del Grosso and 1:03 over Verstrynge.

With Vandeputte beating Aerts in the sprint for fourth, it was technically a 1-2-3-4 for Alpecin with their three cyclocross stars, and Verstrynge, who races for Crelan-Corendon in cyclocross, but Alpecin on the road. A fine day out for the Belgian team. Meanwhile, Nys fought valiantly despite his crash to finish 19th on the day.

Zonhoven marked the final race of a busy Christmas period, and the riders will have a short period of rest before the national championships weekend, which takes place on January 10-11.