From mud fest to flying show? Wout van Aert expects a ‘totally different’ Dendermonde cyclocross

When you say Dendermonde, you think of a grueling mud cross, but this year the course is fast due to the weather conditions. Wout van Aert, who has won here three times in the East Flanders city, sees it the same way.

"I never expected to encounter no mud here in Dendermonde," Van Aert said after the race to the gathered press – including WielerFlits – looking ahead to the World Cup cross. "Today the conditions are completely different. It will be a day of waiting and feeling things out for everyone."

"In muddy conditions, Dendermonde is a very tough course, maybe even too tough, but I do like it. Today, however, we are facing a very fast race."

This does not immediately seem to favor Van Aert. "I definitely prefer a mud race with long running sections, but today will be completely different. Because of the freezing weather, the course is totally dry and rolls well, since there’s some frost in the ground."

Is this a reason for the Visma | Lease a Bike rider to race more conservatively? "I will try to make the race hard; that always plays to my advantage, but I don’t know if it’s possible under these conditions."