Two Mathieu van der Poel flats made Saturday’s World Cup race in Maasmechelen more engaging than most of the world champion’s contests. However, with his career 50th World Cup round victory, he edged ahead of Sven Nys in the record books. The eleventh and penultimate round of the 2025-2026 UCI ‘Cross World Cup was the first of a concluding weekend double-header. Rhett Bates was top Canadian in 44th.

Preliminaries

With two rounds remaining and Mathieu van der Poel scheduled to race them both, the six-round victor looked like a lock to win his second title, his first seven years ago. Although he claimed three rounds, Thibau Nys seemed fated to finish second.

It looked like Nys would come up short in his bid to win the World Cup.

The Canadian contingent was Rhett Bates and Cameron Jette.

Pim Ronhaar and Joran Wyseure crashed spectacularly right at the start. Tibor del Grosso snagged the front before Cameron Mason spurted away. Kevin Kuhn, van der Poel and del Grosso latched onto the Brit. Nys had metres to make up. Niels Vandeputte was the closest chaser by the line.

Mason with the early lead.

Mason continued to cut trail in the beginning of Lap 2, making it hard for Vandeputte and Nys to link up with the front group. A big error put Mason on the back foot near the end of the lap. Jette and Bates were 54th and 55th respectively.

Vandeputte hustles to keep up.

With Mason out of the group, del Grosso assumed the driving duties on Lap 3 of 9. A flat further deflated Mason’s chances of winning. Nys and del Grosso kept diving across each other for the lead. When the quintet accordianed at the top of a sharp little rise van der Poel took over. The two Dutch Alpecin-Premier Tech riders were clear.

Van der Poel and del Grosso clear at the end of Lap 3.

To no one’s surprise, van der Poel dropped del Grosso on Lap 4, but the Dutch champ found the world champion’s rear wheel again. It was safer for del Grosso to lead. Van der Poel flatted with the pits far away. Del Grosso was 23 seconds ahead of the man in the rainbow jersey going into the fifth circuit. Jette was 48th and Bates 50th.

Van der Poel and Nys in the sand.

Could del Grosso hang on? Nys and Vandeputte were eight seconds in arrears, and Kuhn was between the duo and van der Poel early on Lap 5. Six seconds separated del Grosso from Nys and Vandeputte at the line, with van der Poel only 10 seconds back.

What an opportunity for del Grosso.

Del Tibor gave a mighty sigh on Lap 6 as Nys, Vandeputte and van der Poel found him. However, a misstep from van der Poel on the steep bank that was giving everyone problems made him have to sew it up again.

More problems for van der Poel on Lap 6.

Van der Poel took over on Lap 7. He wanted company no more. Off he went. Nys was alone in Position 2 until he repeated a race-long mistake.

By the penultimate lap it appeared like the top spot was a foregone conclusion, Nys, Vandeputte and del Grosso in a podium scrap. But another van der Poel flat closer to the pits allowed the trio to come back. Filipe Orts appeared in the background to make things even more interesting.

Van der Poel reestablished his gap to 11 seconds when he heard the bell. Nys missed out on the podium.

Sunday’s concluding round of the 2025-2026 series was in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands.

2025-2026 UCI ‘Cross World Cup, Round 11, Maasmechelen
1) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherlands/Alpecin-Premier Tech) 1:03:52
2) Niels Vandeputte (Belgium/Alpecin-Premier Tech) +0:03
3) Tibor del Grosso (The Netherlands/Alpecin-Premier Tech) +0:04
44) Rhett Bates (Canada)
45) Cameron Jette (Canada)