{"id":404383,"date":"2026-02-02T20:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/404383\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T20:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:03:10","slug":"if-id-seen-a-red-towel-fluttering-i-would-have-quit-lars-van-der-haar-rides-last-cyclo-cross-world-championships-of-career-with-imminent-birth-of-son-as-top-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/404383\/","title":{"rendered":"‘If I’d seen a red towel fluttering, I would have quit’ \u2013 Lars van der Haar rides last Cyclo-cross World Championships of career with imminent birth of son as top priority"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were tears and words of appreciation for his sport from long-standing top cyclo-cross racer Lars van der Haar<\/a>, when he managed to complete the last World Championships of his career on Sunday<\/a> \u2013 as well as some nerves about an ongoing family situation.<\/p>\n

Despite hurting his knee during the race, Van der Haar finished 19th, clearly delighted to be able to celebrate compatriot Mathieu van der Poel, who took a record-breaking eighth title on home soil.<\/p>\n

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A former double U23 World Champion and four-time podium finisher in the elite men’s event, as well as a double winner of the European Championships, Van der Haar is now close to the end of a career that has seen him win 43 races.<\/p>\n

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Known for his well-honed technical skills and powerful accelerations, he kicked off his pro career back in 2013 with a bang when he took back-to-back World Cup wins in Valkenburg and Tabor, the first two of nine.<\/p>\n

In his last ever World Championships, as he told reporters later, the 34-year-old Dutchman’s wife is shortly due to give birth, and Van der Haar said that he had been prepared to abandon had he seen a pre-agreed sign appear amongst the spectators should he need to head for the family home immediately.<\/p>\n

“My wife is waiting at home,” Van der Haar said in comments reported by Het Laatste Nieuws<\/a>. “With our first daughter, things happened very quickly and I would have dropped out of the race. We had a red towel for that.”<\/p>\n

“If I had seen it fluttering, I would have quit.”<\/p>\n

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The imminent arrival of Van der Haar’s second child meant he had not slept much, and he did not even head to the race itself until Sunday morning, HLN reported.<\/p>\n

He got off to a good start, but then bumped his knee, and his chances of staying with riders fighting for fourth place evaporated.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never had so much pain in my knee. It was the end of the race. If the pain had stayed, I wouldn’t have made it to the finish. I couldn’t ride anymore, but luckily the pain went away after half a lap,” he said.<\/p>\n

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At the finish, Van der Haar was in tears, saying, “It’s just a beautiful sport. I enjoyed it so much.<\/p>\n

“It’s just so wonderful to ride for your own country. To see everyone perform, to be at their best here, to see Mathieu win his eighth world title.”<\/p>\n

Referring to the setbacks in his last race, he said, “In the end, I didn’t enjoy it, but maybe I should have enjoyed it more. As a top athlete, you still want to achieve a result.”<\/p>\n

Experience the 2026 cycling season with a Cyclingnews subscription that offers you unlimited access to our unrivalled coverage. Our global team will be on the ground at all the major races to bring you breaking news, in-depth features, exclusive interviews and member-exclusive content. <\/a>Find out more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were tears and words of appreciation for his sport from long-standing top cyclo-cross racer Lars van der…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-404383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}