Woutmas, the Van der Poelstice, Pidderspalooza ... You Know the Drill
The cyclocross holidays are upon us. Let us rejoice.
If you’re on Twitter (well, for now) or Instagram, you’ve probably seen stories about the collective returns of Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert, and Mathieu van der Poel to cyclocross. And if you’ve been around the Bulletin for the past two years, you know that these returns are festive occasions.
The Bulletin house most definitely celebrates Woutmas, the Van der Poelstice, and Pidderspalooza, in addition to Mariannukah and all the other cyclocross holidays.
What’s kind of weird is up until right now, we haven’t done a post about our festive fall cyclocross holidays. Slacking a bit, perhaps, but with temperatures still in the 70s as of two weeks ago at Pan-Ams, it just hasn’t felt like the holiday season. With temperatures finally taking a turn for the fall—at least here in the Midwest—the festive feelings are finally here. Crappy winter cyclocross weather is in the air.
After the crazy level of success that Pidcock and Van Aert had on the road this season and Van der Poel’s enigmatic existence since the Tokyo Olympics, there were a lot of questions about whether or not would ever see the Big Three race cyclocross. As their schedules slowly leaked out, the good news was that all three were planning on racing ‘cross this winter, with at least Van Aert and Van der Poel setting their sights squarely on the World Championships in Hoogeheide.
The reigning World Champion is the first to return to the field, with Pidderspalooza taking place this Saturday at Superprestige Merksplas. Pidcock has been relatively mum about his plans for the full season, as he is reportedly still trying to decide how to balance racing ‘cross with being fresh for the Spring Classics in early 2023.
What we do know is that Pidcock is confirmed for Merksplas on Saturday and World Cup Overijse on Sunday.
Similarly cryptic, at least compared to Van Aert, is Van der Poel’s plan for the coming season. Back in September, he dropped a nugg in a Sporza interview that he’s planning on racing 10 to 15 ‘cross races this season. One has to assume that the World Championships on his dad’s course are one of those races, but he has only confirmed one race thus far.
The Van der Poelstice is confirmed for next Sunday’s World Cup Hulst on the 27th. Pidcock is also reportedly confirmed to race in Hulst as well. The linked Wielerflits story also does the lord’s work of letting us know that Van der Poel recently dyed his hair platinum blonde. It’s no Snor van der Haar, but it will do.
Then we finally get to Woutmas.
Ever the consummate professional, Van Aert released his schedule for the remainder of 2022. His schedule appears to be focused around Kerstperiode, with 6 races in 12 days beginning at Mol on the 23rd of December and culminating with the race in Harentaals on the 3rd of January. The latter race has been reported by Wielerflits.
Woutmas, that special day we all eagerly await, is scheduled for World Cup Antwerp on December 4. The organizer of the Hulst World Cup had previously suggested all three would be racing next Sunday, but the release of Van Aert’s official schedule by his team indicates that the dream reunion is not to be.
So What Does This All Mean?
Times are tough when it comes to keeping top athletes in cyclocross, so it rules that all three of Van Aert, Van der Poel, and Pidcock are planning on racing cyclocross this winter. Although they are so good that they make it difficult for anyone on the regular shift to win races, as a fan and as a sport, you want to see the best of the best race as much as possible.
However, as discussed on the most recent Media Pit, the timing of the return of the Three CXmigos is kind of unfortunate because the day shifters Laurens Sweeck, Michael Vanthourenhout, Eli Iserbyt, and Lars van der Haar are delivering high-quality, compelling racing right now. The return of Pidock, then Van der Poel, then Van Aert is going to mess up the equilibrium of a situation we have waited for years to come to fruition.
The cyclocross holiday season also brings way more uncertainty than previous years. At the forefront of this uncertainty is Mathieu van der Poel. Van der Poel had an up-and-down summer. He won Flanders (up!), but then dropped out of the Tour de France after Stage 11 with no wins (down *frowny*). Then he won three races in August and September (up!) before DNFing at the road World Championships (down).
Last season, Van der Poel’s cyclocross season lasted exactly 1.5 races after he pulled the plug due to severe back pain. He has said he has the back pain under control, but how will he respond once subjected to the rigors of cyclocross? TBD!
Pidcock also seems to be a bit of a mystery. He’s the reigning World Champion, so it’s great to see him racing, but toward the latter part of the summer he suggested he was getting a bit burnt out, so it is unclear how much ‘cross he will be racing. He is focused on the 2023 Spring Classics, so a super abbreviated cyclocross schedule might be part of his prep for what he hopes is a monster spring campaign.
The steady eddy of the triumvirate is Van Aert. Van Aert won a Van-der-Poelian 9 of 10 races last season and was an odds-on favorite for Worlds if it were to take place in Europe.
This season, Worlds is taking place in Europe and Van Aert very much plans on racing it. If all goes well and both Van Aert and Van der Poel are both healthy, the situation seems perfectly teed up for an epic World Championships. Van Aert going for number 4 to tie Van der Poel on Van der Poel’s home turf. Let us hope it happens.
Worth noting that VdP was a DNS at worlds after hotelgate. Also interesting to see Jolanda Neff return to CX at NCGP this weekend.
I think the most interesting part of this is that both MVDP - the Australian fracas, dying your hair, 1.5 races last season which looks more like Netflix than CX prep - and TP ( watch me follow in PFPs footsteps - which seemed to me- at the time both disrespectful of the competition and of the towering achievement it was) getting out thought, out classed and out gunned by Nino and then not turning up for Road Worlds who needs to give a very strong signal of ‘backness’ and being ‘elite’- coming in against the cross and only cross riders who seem to have gone up a level…and also IDK but Joris! Hard to doubt that WVA will hit the ground running and he’s the one I can see going straight to the front and winning but it all looks more interesting than 2 years ago. ( Whatever happens it won’t be as good as the women but FVE, SVA and PP are starting to look like the big 3 so we need Marianna, Lucinda, Denise and Ceylin to get their mojo working. It certainly looks like the changing of the guard.. Cue montage and Steely Dan track here..keep up the good work.