<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe at some point he wants to ride all the way to Lombardy and then has to start building up again. That makes a cyclocross winter more difficult. This year, that was not a discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
No decision made, but the door is open<\/p>\n
Those remarks arrive against the backdrop of another winter in which Van der Poel has once again looked untouchable whenever he starts, reinforcing both his dominance and the sense that cyclocross now sits at a crossroads in his long-term planning. While the results suggest total control, the conversations around him are increasingly shaped by calendar management rather than competitive motivation.<\/p>\n
The hidden cost of a cyclocross winter<\/p>\n
Adrie van der Poel\u2019s comments focused less on trophies and more on the everyday reality behind repeated race days. \u201cIt\u2019s more than a full day,\u201d he said when describing a typical cyclocross outing. \u201cSometimes you already do an hour of warm up riding in the morning, then it\u2019s showering and straight off to the cross. If he then wins and there is a control, it takes an hour and a half before we can leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cumulative effect, he suggested, is often underestimated. \u201cThey are simply very intensive days. In the evening, we are usually only back between seven and eight o\u2019clock, and then you still have to go to the masseur. Add it all together. You can\u2019t just ride three days of cyclocross without consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Performance, pressure and the road trade off<\/p>\n
That perspective adds further context to the wider conversation already unfolding this winter, where rivals have openly admitted that Van der Poel is operating at a level they struggle to influence. While the focus externally has been on results and margins, inside the Van der Poel camp the discussion appears far more practical, centred on workload, recovery and long term balance.<\/p>\n
Adrie also addressed the recurring question of whether a winter without cyclocross could unlock further gains on the road. \u201cWe don\u2019t know if he can still improve without racing cyclocross. We simply don\u2019t know that,\u201d he said, before acknowledging that the comparison with other multi-discipline stars inevitably plays a role. \u201cHe said: \u2018Tadej doesn\u2019t race cyclocross either, and he still rides a strong spring.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside performance considerations, Adrie pointed to the constant pressure that accompanies sustained success. \u201cEveryone is always watching him. And the more you win, the closer the non-win becomes,\u201d he noted, framing the mental load as another factor that cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n
Short term focus, long term questions<\/p>\n
For now, there is no immediate decision looming. Adrie stressed that any shift in approach would be part of a broader planning cycle rather than a sudden break. \u201cIt\u2019s fourteen days, a little under three weeks, and then he\u2019ll be back in Spain,\u201d he said, underlining how quickly the focus can turn back to road preparation.<\/p>\n
In a winter where Van der Poel continues to dominate whenever he appears, his father\u2019s words offer a reminder that the debate is not about motivation or ability, but about balance. The question is no longer whether he can keep winning in cyclocross, but how much of that intensity still fits into the wider arc of his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cMaybe at some point he wants to ride all the way to Lombardy and then has to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[199759,64,63,784,124089,77973,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-368599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-adrie-van-der-poel","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-cyclocross","13":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}