Mathieu van der Poel takes victory in memorable Zilvermeercross after Wout van Aert crash

Mathieu van der Poel won the Zilvermeercross in Mol. In the snow, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel turned it into the first real duel of this winter, but since Van Aert crashed with fewer than three laps to go, Van der Poel eventually cruised to victory.

Midway through the women's race, the organizers of the Zilvermeercross were presented with a gift when it started snowing. As a result, the Exact Cross became the first true snow cross of the year, and we could at least look forward to beautiful pictures of Van Aert and Van der Poel in the snowy sand.

The two put on a spectacle on Friday. Van Aert had two furious starting laps, during which he thinned out the group significantly and drove away with Van der Poel, Toon Aerts, and Felipe Orts. Would we finally see a duel? It certainly started to look like it, until Van Aert made a mistake in the sand in the third lap and had to let Van der Poel go. The world champion then quickly opened a fifteen-second gap on his eternal rival.

🚴🇧🇪 | Na een kwartier cross stuift Van der Poel er vandoor in het zand, terwijl Van Aert zich vastrijdt. Is dit al de beslissing? 💪💪 #cyclocross

📺 Cross kijk je op HBO Max pic.twitter.com/fKrrlUb7r4

— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) January 2, 2026

First real duel between Van Aert and Van der Poel
Still, it got exciting. In the fourth lap, MVDP crashed, after which he quickly reduced his deficit by several seconds. Van Aert then smelled blood and, after some strong sand sections, closed the gap with Van der Poel again, giving us the first real duel this winter.

Van Aert even seemed to have the upper hand on Van der Poel in several sections. However, the race ended anticlimactically. After forty minutes of racing, Van Aert crashed hard, effectively ending the race. The Belgian peeled off at the very first pit stop and had to withdraw, suffering quite some pain.

Van der Poel finally rode out the race under very poor weather conditions and remains undefeated this season. After Van Aert’s withdrawal, Aerts and Orts joined Van der Poel on the podium.

🚵🇧🇪 | Mathieu van der Poel wins again in the snow. He stays upright in Mol and remains undefeated. Such a shame that this duel with Van Aert was also cut short... 🙌🇳🇱 #cyclocross

📺 Cross kijk je op HBO Max pic.twitter.com/nV87rUVvZW

— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) January 2, 2026