Cyclocross world championships 2026: Aaron Dockx delivers gold for Belgium
Aaron Dockx has claimed gold at the 2026 Cyclocross World Championships in the men's under-23 category. The 21-year-old Belgian was by far the strongest in the race, held in Hulst. He relegated Aubin Sparfel (France) and Keije Solen (the Netherlands) to silver and bronze. Guus van den Eijnden also finished fourth for the Netherlands, while Arthur Van den Boer took fifth for Belgium. Dockx succeeds his teammate Tibor Del Grosso on the roll of honor. Top favorite David Haverdings was nowhere to be seen: he only finished fourteenth.
The French took the early lead with Romain Debord and Aubin Sparfel. David Haverdings didn’t want to be outdone and positioned himself between the two French riders. Meanwhile, Aaron Dockx had missed his start from the front row, as had the Italian outsider Stefano Viezzi. Unlucky, he had to run to the technical zone. Out of sheer frustration, he threw his bike away at the beginning of the transition, before hopping on a new one. However, this is not allowed, so Viezzi was immediately disqualified.
At the front of the race, the Belgian Arthur Van den Boer, Sparfel, Haverdings, and the Dutchman Guus van den Eijnden slightly broke away from the rest. For the Frenchman Sparfel, this was the signal to go solo. With several strong efforts, he distanced himself from the other three leaders. From behind, Dockx was closing in, and he joined Haverdings and company. More riders followed in his slipstream. The Dutchman then tried to close the gap on the Frenchman.
Haverdings has a bad day; Dockx takes flight
Then it became clear that Haverdings was not feeling his best. That was the cue for Dockx to make the solo move. He shook off the rest of the chasing group and quickly closed in on Sparfel. The Frenchman suddenly came to a stop, and Dockx went past him. Sparfel reached for his front wheel and immediately headed to the technical zone. The Frenchman dropped back to the chasers, where Van den Boer immediately did some blocking work. Sparfel refused to give up and went off solo again in search of Dockx.
The Frenchman kept the pressure on the Belgian, but that lasted only until the barriers in the penultimate lap. Sparfel didn’t have enough speed and got caught on the second barrier. With a fourteen-second lead over the Frenchman, Dockx entered the final lap. The Belgian did not give up his advantage. To his own disbelief, the Alpecin-Premier Tech cyclocross rider soloed to the world title. Behind him, Sparfel’s silver was never in jeopardy. However, there was bad luck for Debord; the Frenchman was on course for bronze but suffered a mishap. Keije Solen ensured the Netherlands still took a medal in the under-23 category.
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