Weekend Preview: The Winter Van der Poelstice is Here

MvdP returns at Scheldecross Antwerpen and Superprestige Gavere for the first-ever winter Van der Poelstice

Dec 11, 2020

The last few weeks have been all about returns.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Woutmas and this weekend marks another return to the big stage.

This person coming back has been a star since a young age, reaching accomplishments by their early 20s that most people would call a career.

Multi-talented, they have achieved success in multiple areas of their chosen field.

I am talking, of course, about Taylor Swift and her new album. I have no idea where you thought this was going.

The pop megastar is back with her second album of the pandemic in evermore. Released at midnight Friday morning, the album dropped after this went to press, but never fear, check back here next week for a review.

I was trying to think of an apt athletics or cycling analogy for Taylor Swift’s last decade or so. She left her country roots behind for good with Red and then dropped 1989 at the ripe age of 24. While I am sure there are better pop albums, 1989, to me, was pop perfection. Swift had reached the top of the game.

Then she did the weird Reputation thing where she killed old Taylor and … yeah, that was just weird and not good. Then she mailed it in so hard on Lover that at the age of 29, even though she was and is still a trillionaire, the Taylor Swift moment was kind of over.

Then out of nowhere in July, with no fanfare and little forewarning, she put out a stripped-down, lyrically-dense album called Folklore that was … really good! One of the biggest music stars of the millennium had so lowered expectations that she was able to turn around and come out of nowhere to blow people away with a sound that was a complete 180 from the pop music she had made her name on. It was a total “No one believed in us” moment, except people totally believed in her because she’s rich, but still she kind of shocked the world. It was wild.

Anyway, I’m stoked for evermore. Check back next Friday for a review.

But for real talking about Van der Poel, I’ve been dating this wonderful woman named Erin, and somehow I managed to convince her that watching cyclocross is the best way to spend fall and winter mornings. We’ve mostly watched the Women’s races together, and she has been pretty jazzed on Lucinda Brand’s four-race winning streak. It’s great.

We watched the Men’s race on Sunday, because Wout, and I was trying to explain to her the aura of Wout and then Mathieu van der Poel. I mean, 4 straight wins sounds like a lot, and then you’re like, “So there’s this guy Mathieu van der Poel, he’s won 49 OF HIS LAST 50 RACES.” Like statistically speaking, Mathieu van der Poel starts a cyclocross race, he wins that cyclocross race. Back when I was at Cyclocross Magazine when I wanted to mix things up, I would call him the Dutch wunderkind, the Dutch prodigy, the ubertalent, but IDK if those words even do justice to how good he is at cyclocross.

Last year, the start of Van der Poel’s cyclocross season was kind of interesting because he started on the 4th row, I believe it was, at World Cup Tabor because of the call-up rules in place last year, and was off the front row for a few others, so he kind of had to work to get his wins early on before going on to dominate in typical Van der Poelian fashion.

Our musings on Woutmas were pretty clear that Wout or Pidders might be able to challenge the three-time and two-time defending World Champ, but recent developments suggest cyclocross nation is likely turning its lonely eyes to you Mr. Iserbyt as the man who might be able to challenge MvdP’s supremacy. Iserbyt has been riding well throughout the season, and he seems to have paced his training for a full campaign rather than an October/Novemeber supernova like he did last year, so there is still hope that we will see compelling Men’s cyclocross racing.

Saturday - Antwerp Scheldecross - X2O Trofee

Women: 7:45 am EST
Men: 9:00 a.m. EST

Broadcast: GCN Race Pass (U.S., Canada)

Recent Results:

Women

2018: 1. Denise Betsema 2. Lucinda Brand 3. Laura Verdonschot
2017: 1. Sanne Cant
2016: 1. Sanne Cant
2015: 1. Sanne Cant
2014: 1. Sanne Cant
2013: 1. Katie Compton

Men

2018: 1. Mathieu van der Poel 2. Wout van Aert 3. Toon Aerts
2017: 1. MvdP
2016: 1. MvdP
2015: 1. Wout
2014: 1. MvdP
2013: 1. Niels Albert

The Course

After hilly races at Tabor and Boom!, Euro ‘cross heads to the beach at Scheldecross in Antwerp. Scheldecross took a year off last season to host the Belgian National Championships (aka Boaty McBoat Cross). Unfortunately, it appears the boat will not be back on Saturday.

Both at Belgian Nats and past runnings of Scheldecross, the course has had a few early hills, but the defining feature of the course is the Sint-Annastrand beach (4.0 or 4.2 stars on Google, depending on whether you use a hyphen or not) along the Scheldt River. With a nice stretch of sand on the course, you know what that means: BAH GAWD THAT’S LAURENS SWEECK’S MUSIC.

The course map is below:

Sunday: Superprestige Gavere

Women: 7:40 am EST
Men: 9:00 am EST

Broadcast: GCN Race Pass (U.S. / Canada)

Recent Results

Women

2019: 1. Yara Kastelijn 2. Alice Maria Arzuffi 3. Ceylin Alvarado
2018: 1. Alice Maria Arzuffi
2017: 1. Ellen Van Loy
2016: 1. Sanne Cant
2015: 1. Sanne Cant
2014: 1. Sanne Cant
2013: 1. Sanne Cant

Men

2019: 1. Eli Iserbyt 2. Lars van der Haar 3. Laurens Sweeck
2018: 1. Mathieu van der Poel
2017: 1. Wout van Aert
2016: 1. MvdP
2015: 1. Wout
2014: 1. Klaas Vantornout
2013: 1. Sven

The Course

Superprestige Gavere (Hav-Er-Uh) (or something like that) takes place at a Belgian Air Force base. Typically a November race, perhaps it is fitting that Gavere is in December this year since the next town over is called Nazareth. With Gavere about an hour’s drive from Antwerp, this weekend marks the first of the year that the world’s biggest local cyclocross series has a double weekend.

In past years, the course has had a bit of a veldrijden (field riding) vibe in parts, but much of the course is located in the woods. Riders enter the forest via a descent and then have to climb back out near the end of the lap. Last year’s race was relatively dry, but two years ago, the climb out of the forest was a muddy slog that challenged the riders to find the right mix of grip and power.

If you’re looking to read the tea leaves, the past two winners, Kastelijn and Arzuffi, have been known to shine on the climbier courses, so this race, at least, seems to favor Brand in the developing Brand-Alvarado rivalry.

Who’s Hot

Denise Betsema

Look, I know that many of you have strong opinions about the Dutchwoman from Texel, but she has been racing well as of late. In her last six races, she has gone 3-2-2-2-3-3, which, regardless of who’s doing it, is a nice run. After getting Prime-Timed in Pandora’s Swale at World Cup Tabor, Betsema jumped out to a fast start at Superprestige Boom before running out of juice and settling for third.

She is the choice for this week because a. We’ve already written a bajillion words about how good Lucinda Brand is right now and b. On the Twitters, I challenged Bill to do next week’s CX Heat Check Power Rankings as Taylor Swift songs (BTW, he accepted, cyclocross friends) and…

… I was already beginning to wonder if Betsema would warrant the Bad Blood reference, or if it would be bestowed upon one of the men involved in the IserBEEF. No matter what happens, I don’t know if I have been more excited for a Power Rankings ever in my life.

Eli Iserbyt

I’ve done some reflecting after calling Iserbyt the Grinch Who Stole Woutmas, and you know what, I think I’ve been too hard on the young Belgian. After a big Woutmas weekend where he clearly wanted to steal the show from the People’s Champ, Iserbyt settled in and raced a super impressive, super strong, super tactical race at Superprestige Boom and left little doubt he was the best man on the afternoon. With the Tormans Twins having a strong start to the race and Wout in the mix, the group dynamic was a bit different, but Iserbyt was able to survey the situation and find the right time to assert his authoritah on the race.

With the win, Iserbyt has now won 2 of his last 3 races and finished a close second in the third. With the Van der Poelstice occurring this weekend, it’s good to see Iserbyt on good form, and you know he will be hungry to give the defending World Champ a good fight. I, for one, am excited to see what happens.

Heat Check Rider of the Week

Clara Honsinger

IDK, maybe it’s a bit of a homer pick, but it was great to see Lil’ Clara, aka Lil’ Glowplug, dieseling her way through the field in the Stars-and-Stripes kit at Superprestige Boom. Honsinger moved all the way up to 6th by the end of the race, suggesting her first Euro wide angle podium or even podium is within reach.

Last season, Honsinger finished 3rd at the super climby Jingle Cross World Cup and 6th at the super climby World Cup Namur, so she seems poised for another strong race at Gavere on Sunday. I don’t think any readers would be upset to see the Red, White, and Blue break the Oranje stranglehold on the top 5 of the CX Heat Check Power Rankings.

Gimmick Watch

I don’t know what happened, but on this week’s episode of The Media Pit, we kind of skipped right by most of our recurring bits. Never fear, however, because I am here to do the heavy lifting for the squad.

Is LaUrEnS sWeEcK eLiTe?

Sanne Watch

When I was trying to find the GIF for Lucinda Brand’s pit mishap at Bogense Worlds, I ended up going down a ‘cross rabbit hole trying to re-watch that part of the race. In the process, I watched the last two laps of that race, and did you know that less than 2 years ago, Sanne Cant defeated the ENTIRE DUTCH FEDERATION and won her third-straight world championship? All of them. All the oranje. Wild.

Is Lars van der Haar Back?

Every athlete has a different path to being back. Perhaps it is unfair to expect linear growth toward some sort of BACKness nirvana, toward a singularity of BACKness. Sometimes the road is winding, and sometimes the planks are daunting.

What I am trying to say is, you know what is back? That dread you feel when the plank cam flashes to Lars van der Haar. Van der Haar may not have been BACK in the results, but he was back on the crash cam. You win some, you lose some.

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Mathieu van der Poel’s team did a hype video.