As Mathieu van der Poel’s winter cyclocross campaign nears, the Dutchman hoping to make history with an eighth world title in the discipline, some training footage has emerged showing a miraculous crash save.
The video, filmed by a training partner and uploaded to Instagram, showed the moment Van der Poel somehow avoided a heavy fall after suffering mechanical issues while trying to unleash a sprint.
Video of MVDP’s insane save from today with original sound. 🫶🏻
🎥: anatole_leb pic.twitter.com/qKlCPUB9o7
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) December 6, 2025
Anatole Leboucher, a rider for French club team UC Cholet 49 who is stepping up to Continental level next year, uploaded the footage of the head-to-head training sprint against the eight-time Monument winner, the video apparently filmed by another training partner behind.
The first attempt ended with Van der Poel’s back wheel jumping and the pair resetting, but on the second sprint the same issue happened and the Dutch rider was violently flung onto his top tube as his Canyon swerved across the road.
Mathieu van der Poel crash save (credit: anatole_leb/Instagram)
Understandably, the filming rider’s main concern when Van der Poel swerved was avoiding any potential crash, the footage not showing exactly how the seven-time cyclocross world champion kept things upright. Once the camera returned to Van der Poel a second later, he was serenely rolling along like nothing happened.
Mathieu van der Poel crash save (credit: anatole_leb/Instagram)
As one of the top comments on Instagram suggested: “I thought the classic season was over in a video.”
More immediately at risk could have been Van der Poel’s cyclocross campaign, the multi-discipline star about to embark on another winter of racing, beginning with his reappearance at Namur next weekend.
It is likely all muddy roads will lead to Hulst on February 1 when Van der Poel could win an eighth UCI Cyclocross World Championship, which would also be his fourth in a row.
On Friday, Van der Poel’s team Alpecin-Deceuninck announced that Premier Tech would be joining the team as a co-title sponsor from next season. The Canadian company had sponsored Israel-Premier Tech but walked away after a year of protests and controversy surrounding the team, Premier Tech stating it had become “untenable to continue”.
Instead, the company has signed a three-year deal with Alpecin-Deceuninck, including an option for a further three years.
Team bosses Philip and Christoph Roodhooft said the deal will enable the squad to “invest with a long-term vision, strengthen our performance pathways, and accelerate the growth we have been pursuing in recent seasons”.