READY TO ROCK

After years of cyclo-cross domination, Mathieu van der Poel enters the Spring Classics with a full programme and the weight of expectation. Owen Rogers asks if he can meet it

- Owen Rogers

It’s a dull January day in Belgium and outside a four-star Ghent hotel the slick metallic grey Porsche Panamera stands out among the family hatchbacks. You could be forgiven for thinking that Van Halen are in town, but the fact that there’s room in the back to fit a bike is a clue. The personalised number plate reading MVDP is a dead giveaway. An altogether different breed of rock star is in attendance.

The choice of car mirrors the flamboyance evident in Mathieu van der Poel’s racing. Muscular, powerful, stylish and with a storied heritage, he simply outclasses most of the competition. Style aside, it’s his results sheet that paid for it. Undoubtedly the best cyclo-cross racer in the world, his recent World Championship win was his third, the second in successive seasons. At the time of writing he has 15 consecutive wins, losing only once in his last 50 starts — he just peels off hit, after hit, after hit.

Alpecin-Fenix team manger and sports director, Christoph Roodhooft, tells us the swagger it has imbued him with is more than just an act. “He is always happy when he pins ona number and he can play around a bit, he likes to be on the road.

“He brings fun when it’s needed and he’s serious when it’s needed. In pre-race talks he’s serious until all the important things are said and the fun part starts.

“But he’s 25 now, he’s won a lot of things, his life’s changed, he’s not a little boy anymore, but in a lot of things he’s still that little boy, and he always will be.

“Like a rock star, they never end up getting serious.”

Inside the Van der Valk Nazareth hotel, Mathieu van der Poel is holding court. Relaxed, he sits at one end of a hotel conference room table lined on both sides with journalists. A TV camera circles and the conversation is punctuated by the clicking of a photographer’s camera.