Cyclo-cross World Cup: Unstoppable Mathieu van der Poel solos to fourth straight victory in Gavere

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took his fourth successive victory of the 2023/24 cyclo-cross season on Sunday, winning the UCI World Cup round in Gavere with a long solo move and avoiding any mistakes on the tough, hilly course.

Following on from his imperious wins in Antwerp and Mol, the world champion put in an audacious move as early as the first half of the first lap in Gavere, riding away from Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and building a gap that could not be closed over the next seven laps.

Van Aert spent the whole race chasing solo, and held Van der Poel within about 40 seconds for most of the race, but could not close in on the charging Dutchman, and had to settle for second for the third time in a row.

Third place went to Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), marking the first time this season that the podium has been occupied by the ‘big three’. The Brit had a difficult start, put battled back through the pack and into third place, battling tightly with Joris Nieuwenhuis (Baloise Trek Lions) on the final lap before eventually dropping the Dutchman in the final few hundred metres.

• Read more: Where will Mathieu van der Poel, Tom Pidcock and Wout van Aert clash this winter?

"It was a super hard one today," Van der Poel said at the finish. "The mud was really sticking. It was harder and harder every lap to control the bike, and I was suffering at the end."

"It's so difficult on a course like this to follow the wheel," he said of his decision to attack to early. "It's way better to ride in front and choose your own lines. The race was so hard that it was better to just find my own rhythm from the start."

Another audacious ride from Van der Poel

It was an expectedly aggressive start to the race, with several riders starting strong off the line and forming a big front group on the first lap. However, it didn’t take long for Mathieu van der Poel to want to push on, with the world champion accelerating into the hardest part of the course to begin to open up a gap ahead of Wout van Aert.

The Dutchman was opening up a decent lead within the first 10 minutes of racing, with Van Aert in second, whilst Joris Nieuwenhuis and Lars van der Haar (both Baloise Trek Lions) were chasing in third and fourth.

Going into the second lap, an early order had already been established, with Van der Poel showing his strength once again after a similarly imperious victory in the last round in Antwerp. By the end of lap 2, Van der Poel had a 30 second lead over Van Aert, with Van der Haar and Nieuwenhuis just eight seconds behind the Belgian.

A mistake for Van Aert on the third lap saw him sent into the barriers, and lost a few more seconds to the still-charging Van der Poel, who led by 40 seconds starting lap 4 with no signs of slowing. Meanwhile, the third of the ‘big three’, Tom Pidcock, was moving up the field after a difficult start, up to seventh and just over a minute down.

With Van der Poel looking assured up front, the main story of the middle laps was Pidcock’s resurgence, and by the fifth lap he was hot on the heels of Nieuwenuis and Van der Haar. Despite looking strong, Van der Poel’s lead was not increasing, though Van Aert couldn’t do much more except hold the gap at 40 seconds.

After joining the chasers, Pidcock had a heavy fall in the mud, and had to fight back on once again, whilst Nieuwenhuis tried to take advantage of the situation. Pidcock wasn’t letting him go anywhere though, and was back with the Dutchman by the end of the sixth lap, whilst Pidcock’s repeated accelerations had finally distanced Van der Haar.

First and second were essentially assured on the final lap, but it was a yo-yo battle between Pidcock and Nieuwenhuis in the fight for third, with each taking time on the front and attacking the other. There was little to separate the two until the final few hundred metres of the lap, Pidcock finally powered away to take third behind a collected Van der Poel and a seemingly dismayed Van Aert.