The good news for his rivals is that Mathieu van der Poel doesn’t plan to dominate the Christmas cyclocross period. That pronouncement came after the world champion turned up to his first cyclocross race of the season on Sunday, the Zonhoven World Cup, and won by well over a minute. Good news then, this wasn’t the plan, he just demolished everyone by accident, he’s just training.
"Yes, it was a great victory today, but I preferred to save myself and stay in zone two throughout the race. Because I plan to do some high intensity training this week,” Van der Poel said post-race. How charming, he wasn’t even really trying, just staying in zone two. He could have had a chat, or stopped for a coffee halfway round. He went on to win at Mol in the Superprestige series on Monday, too.
