Mathieu van der Poel seems to have been hinting more and more these past days at the end of his cyclocross career. But how does his biggest rival of the last ten years, Wout van Aert, actually view this?
Mathieu van der Poel still dominates the field as usual, but the Dutchman might be in his final cyclocross season. In an interview with Het Laatste Nieuws, the world champion indicates that he has been thinking about his cyclocross retirement for some time. "It is something I am considering, yes. I always said that I would love to retire in my home country with the record for world titles."
How does his lifelong rival Van Aert view Van der Poel’s possible retirement plans? "I was quite shocked when I read it, but on some level I understand it," he said after the X2O-cross in Hofstade, where Van Aert finished second behind the Dutch world champion, to WielerFlits among others. "He has nothing left to win in cyclocross."
"I still love coming back every winter"
"Sometimes I feel that way myself, but Mathieu is obviously on another level. It would be great if he could claim that record (in Hulst, Van der Poel can win his eighth elite world title, ed.)."
"On the other hand, looking at myself: I still really enjoy coming back every winter. I can imagine he still gets a lot of pleasure out of it. We’ll all have to wait and see what will happen. Do I personally think about saying goodbye to cyclocross? No, I haven’t thought about that yet," Van Aert concluded with a smile.
