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Yes, Mathieu van der Poel is back. But he’s not the only big name to have turned up this weekend – the Christmas kind of weekend that bends all rules of time – and shredded the sandy parcours of World Cup and Superprestige cyclocross calendars.
The Kerstperiode is a particularly celebrated portion of the CX season that runs throughout Christmas and into the new year, and it’s stacked: numerous consecutive days of racing for almost an entire two-week stretch, during which the riders and their fans are more enthusiastic than ever. It’s no surprise that Van der Poel and Wout van Aert (off sick for now) chose these races for their return to the dirt – and Marianne Vos too has announced a season debut at World Cup Besançon on 29 December.
After a punchy start to the festive fortnight, we’re bringing you a Kerstperiode gallery, volume 1, that captures the dominant appearances of Van der Poel and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, with spotlights also claimed by first-time World Cup winners Marie Schreiber and Niels Vandeputte.
World Cup Hulst (Saturday 21st Dec) – Marie Schreiber and Niels Vandeputte
World Cup Zonhoven (Sunday 22nd Dec) – Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Mathieu van der Poel
Superprestige Mol (Monday 23rd Dec) – Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Mathieu van der Poel
Marie Schreiber of SD Worx and Luxembourg (just right of centre) has made a super-fast start her thing and it was only a matter of time before it worked. Meanwhile, Lucinda Brand (in the mostly white jersey and blue helmet who starts on the front row) had an issue that put the Baloise Trek Lions rider on the back foot before the race had even begun.Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) was making her second appearance of the season at World Cup Hulst, a course on which she has won the past two editions.After returning to the top step of the podium for her seventh win of the season in Namur last weekend, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Deceuninck) had a tricky day out back on home soil in Hulst, ultimately coming home eighth, her lowest finish of the 24-25 season so far.Brand also had a tricky day, though that’s not reflected on the results sheet. The World Cup leader had a pedal-related mishap at the start which meant the 35-year-old was forced to chase hard for the duration as Schreiber created a sizeable gap.Annemarie Worst (Cyclocross Reds) raced to her joint best result of the season with fourth in Hulst. She was looking good for another strong result on Sunday, but a heavy crash forced the Dutchwoman to abandon. It later transpired that Worst had broken two bones in her hand which would require surgery.Blanka Vas (SD Worx) has continued to race consistently among the elites this year, though Hulst saw her worst finish of the season with ninth.At the other end of the top 10, Vas’s trade teammate was flying, and ready to make history for Luxembourg. Schreiber created a big gap and held on to finish by 20 seconds ahead of a resilient Lucinda Brand – who maintained her overall World Cup lead – and Pieterse who kept her podium finishing season alive with another third place.After taking her first elite World Cup win and becoming the first non-Dutch woman to do so since 2021, Schreiber paid tribute to her dog who died earlier in the week.Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Niels Vandeputte struck out early just as Schreiber had done by sprinting into the first corner in the lead, and staying there for the duration.Lars van der Haar (Baloise Trek Lions) and Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) had decent starts, but both had days to forget in Hulst, especially World Cup leader Vanthourenhout who suffered numerous crashes and was only able to pick up 19 points with seventh.European champion Thibau Nys (Baloise Trek Lions) had a really tough day in Hulst, and his dad Sven provided some fairly harsh analysis on air: “there are no excuses, he just wasn’t good enough.” The elder Nys then added, more generously (and prescient too), “The strange thing about Thibau is that he can suddenly be very strong again in Zonhoven. The good and bad days alternate very much. That is sometimes part of a young rider, but with him it fluctuates drastically in certain situations.”Felipe Orts continues to be a revelation of the season, and with that, he may also win transfer of the year after the switch to new outfit Team Ridley.The headline on Saturday afternoon was ‘Who needs Mathieu van der Poel?’ as fellow Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Vandeputte took the biggest victory of his career … In Zonhoven, under-23 world champion Tibor Del Grosso got the day started for the Netherlands and Alpecin-Deceuninck with a second-consecutive U23 World Cup victory after Saturday’s Hulst round. His trade teammate and U23 European champion Jente Michels also made it a double with back-to-back runner-up finishes in Zonhoven. A good weekend for Alpecin-Deceuninck.The day’s racing in Zonhoven was delayed due to stormy conditions, the juniors all getting underway later than expected as a heavy storm battered the course in the morning. Though the elite women were able to start on time, the earlier rainfall served to harden the sandy sections, making the surface, including on the treacherous downhills, both harder and more rutted. Variable conditions continued through the afternoon, especially during the women’s race, with the sand turning almost to sticky mud where the rainwater pooled.It was Zoe Backstedt who led into ‘De Kuil’ after another fast start from Saturday’s winner Marie Schreiber (SD Worx). The 20-year-old from Canyon-SRAM led for over half the race until World Cup-leader Brand reeled her in.The arena-like basin is one of the most picturesque features of the entire cyclocross calendar, and a welcome addition to the Kerstperiode with its festive atmosphere fostered by the huge sandpit. Not even torrential rain – nor indeed hail – can keep fans away, and the sound as the riders plunge downwards is like the roar of a packed stadium.The rain briefly turned to hail as Brand and Backstedt led the race in the fourth lap (of six).Brand tried to leave her young rival behind but an issue on a sandy ramp allowed them to come back together, also inviting the company of Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, who found another gear as Brand appeared to fade.Reigning champion Pieterse was unable to defend her Zonhoven title, and after bronze medals in her first two races of the season, Pieterse dropped a few places to fifth in this damp edition.Belgian national champion Sanne Cant (Crelan-Corendon) has a happy history at Zonhoven, where she took four consecutive victories between 2012 and 2016, then dropped to second before returning to the top step in 2018. The veteran has not returned to the podium since then, but her familiarity on the iconic Belgian course showed in a third top-10 finish of her final season.Alvarado carried a gap into the final lap but nearly lost it all as the sand reached up to grab hold of her front wheel on the drop into ‘De Kuil’, but after a gentle kiss of the airbags, the Dutch CX star was able to keep it upright and complete her victory lap.Alvarado has finished third twice and second once at Zonhoven, and not on the podium since 2021. Sunday’s victory was an extension of what has so far been a fantastic season for the 26-year-old.The long-awaited return of Mathieu van der Poel came next …… and he wasted no time in taking the lead – little over a minute, in fact. The world champion dropped into the first descent with power and a well-chosen line, then scorched up the climb on the opposite side, one of only two who managed to stay on the pedals.After nailing the ‘hole shot’, Toon Aerts (Deschacht-Hens-FSP) took care to follow Van der Poel as closely as possible for as long as possible – the only other rider to stay upright out of the first climb – but that only accounted for seconds on the world champion’s wheel. Even so, with a decent fourth at the finish, the consistent Belgian narrowed the gap to leader Vanthourenhout (10th in Zonhoven) in the overall World Cup standings.Both Aerts and Vanthourenhout, and anyone else interested in the World Cup standings, will need to keep half an eye on Van der Poel. Though he’s started late, he’s only scheduled to miss one of the remaining rounds, and should he win them all, he could chalk up another 200 points on top of the 40 he scored in Zonhoven. That said, if the world champion has any designs on the World Cup title, he’ll have to hope that his rivals suffer many more bad days, but with the leader currently on 140, it’s not impossible.Laurens Sweeck is one of the sand specialists of the elite men’s field, finding form in both Zonhoven and the following day’s Mol round of the Superprestige.An iconic image (I make no apology for overuse of this hyperbolic adjective).Thibau Nys did just as his father predicted and bounced back after Saturday’s disappointing 16th-place performance to finish best-of-the-rest behind the superlative world champion.Van der Poel had over a minute’s advantage over his nearest rivals by shortly after the half-way mark, and at the finish, his margin was 1:30 over Nys, who just about held off the late charge of fellow youngster Joran Wyseure (Crelan-Corendon). The Belgian former U23 world champion also bounced back from a disappointing Hulst performance (23rd) to climb onto an elite World Cup podium for only the second time in his young career.That old chestnut: a picture tells a thousand words.He’s back.Next stop: Superprestige Mol, another significantly sandy race also known as ‘Zilvermeercross’, i.e. Silver Lake.The elite women’s race once again featured a thrilling duel between Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Lucinda Brand, with Crelan-Corendon’s Inge van der Heijden joining the fray until the 25-year-old Dutchwoman lost touch, but hung on to a podium finish.Brand and Alvarado entered into a familiar tug of war on the punchy Mol course …… until Brand suffered a crash and Alvarado broke the elastic in the lead.After earlier Superprestige wins at Ruddervoorde, Niel and Merksplas so far this season – Brand snatching the only other win in Overijse – Alvarado just has the edge over her compatriot in the overall standings, albeit only by two points courtesy of Brand’s particularly consistent performances.With Mol, Alvarado sits on nine wins so far in the 24-25 season, continuing her most-successful season since 20-21 when she won 10 – to achieve a career best, Alvarado will need to match the 16 wins she scored in her first full elite season in 19-20.With more changeable weather and a sandy course, it was another busy day for the mechanics.The ‘Silver Lake’ offers a particularly distinct feature to Superprestige Mol, the riders racing along the water’s edge for part of the lap.In the men’s elite race, Van der Poel took a different approach to the previous day’s World Cup Zonhoven, lingering in the group between second and sixth wheel for a handful of laps.Joran Wyseure, Felipe Orts and Niels Vandeputte also featured in the lead group for half the race.Tied in first place in the Superprestige standings, Lars van der Haar was hunting down a better finish at least than Niels Vandeputte, and in lap four, he forced a split in the lead group, taking only Laurens Sweeck and Van der Poel with him along the lake’s edge.After sixth in Zonhoven, Sweeck came closest to matching the world champion, hanging on longer than anyone else to his compatriot as Van der Haar faded.Watch Van der Haar’s head bob as Van der Poel makes his move on one of the few power sections during the fourth lap.It took him more than 20 minutes longer on the very-different Mol course than in Zonhoven, but when Van der Poel struck he struck hard.The world champion was unable to completely rid himself of company at first, though, with Sweeck rejoining him until finally losing touch in the next lap.And off he goes.Michael Vanthourenhout had something of a return to form in Mol after two low top-10 finishes in the weekend’s World Cup rounds, ultimately leaving behind his fellow chasers to round out the podium in third.After the biggest win of his career to date on Saturday, Vandeputte had another good day at Zilvermeercross, his fifth-place finish resulting in the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider edging ahead of Van der Haar (6th) in the Superprestrige standings. The next round comes at Diegem on December 30th.Van der Poel, meanwhile, was untouchable, and for the second time this season, he put over a minute between himself and the second-place finisher, as Sweeck consolidated second.Boom.
