Le 6 August 2023, Mathieu van der Poel achieves greatest career road feat by becoming world champion, after a completely crazy race. The Dutchman's exceptional performance ranked 3rd in our ranking of the most notable moments of the year 2023, with 98 points au total.
Prologue : the hard blow of 2022
In September 2022, Mathieu van der Poel was one of the main favorites for the road world championships in Wollongang, in Australia. However, destiny will bother Raymond Poulidor's grandson. The night before the line race, he was arrested by the police and spent a few hours in pre-trial detention for alleged acts of violence against teenage girls who harassed him in his hotel room (he was fined 1500 dollars Australia, then released two months later).
An incredible event which reduced to ashes his dream of wearing the rainbow jersey that year. This is a big blow for MVP, who nevertheless will emerge stronger from this ordeal and will make a year 2023 The Jumbo-Visma team.
“I was flying”
In 2023, Mathieu van der Poel reached a new milestone this year. During spring, the Dutchman wins Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, while finishing second in a Tour of Flanders dominated by Tadej Pogacar. On the eve of the world championships in Glasgow, he is one of the big favorites, especially since the route suits it perfectly.
Indeed, the final circuit around the city of Glasgow is a succession of very short climbs of 100 at 200 meters and turns difficult to manage. In short, a perfect course for the powerful and agile cyclocrossman that he is.
These world championships in Glasgow were one of the craziest and hardest races in recent years. In this city journey, the intensity of this race is crazy. At almost 100 kilometers from the finish, the peloton where the favorites appear only has around thirty riders left. On the 195 participants of the 90th edition of the world championships, alone 51 runners managed to cross the finish line.
On this race, Mathieu van der Poel does not wait a second and launches hostilities very early, at 91 and 73 kilometers from the finish. On the second attack, only his lifelong rival Wout van Aert manages to come directly into his wheel. After these two attacks, he adopts a passive and following attitude to let his adversaries exhaust themselves over the kilometers and finally attack when the time comes.
AT 41 kilometers from the finish, a quartet of pursuers is formed consisting of Wout van Aert, Tadej Pogacar, Mads Pedersen and finally MVDP, in the hunt behind the Italian Alberto Bettiol. AT 22 kilometers from the finish, in the coast of George St, the five-time cyclo-cross world champion placed a lightning acceleration which left the trio Van Aert-Pogacar-Pedersen behind and at the same time Bettiol who had been in the lead for around thirty kilometers.
After his decisive attack, he quickly widens the gap on his opponents, and sees his dream getting closer and closer.
He was in a state of grace that day :
Mathieu van der Poel, during the”interview post-race
Even a fall doesn't stop him
A state of grace that will fade away 16 kilometers from the finish. On a hairpin bend, Mathieu van der Poel falls to the ground. A fall which caused bruising to his right leg, and he even had to remove the boa from his right shoe which no longer held in place.
Fortunately, this event had no negative consequences for the Dutchman, who continues to widen the gap and is heading towards the world title. After 6 hours, 7 minutes and 27 seconds of racing, Mathieu van der Poel wins with 1 minute and 38 seconds ahead of Wout van Aert and 1 minute and 45 seconds on Tadej Pogacar.
AT 28 years, the Dutchman achieves the greatest feat of his career on the road, and confirms that he is one of the greatest classic riders of the 21st Century.
