Mathieu van der Poel is in excellent form. The 28-year-old world champion from Alpecin-Deceuninck completed only 10 specific Cyclocross training sessions; however, he demonstrated a dominance rarely seen in the sport at the Exact Cross in Mol. There were 61 cyclists at the start, but only ten made it to the finish.
Specific rule in cyclocross
In cyclocross, there’s the 80% rule. This means that organizers remove from the race the cyclists who are more than 80% behind the race leader. As a result, a whopping 51 participants were “disqualified” by Van der Poel, which means a withdrawal appears behind 51 names on the results sheet. However, they retained their place when removed from the competition.
Short track contributed to several disqualifications
A mitigating circumstance for the cyclists who couldn’t complete the race is the relatively short lap in Mol. Many laps were completed in less than six minutes, which means that an interval of about four minutes and fifty seconds after Van der Poel’s passage was enough to have to abandon the race based on the 80% rule. The second-placed Wout van Aert finished at the end in one minute and seventeen seconds.
Tom Meeusen finished in tenth and last place with exactly five and a half minutes in the Zilvermeercross 2023. For example, road cyclist Florian Vermeersch from Lotto Dstny finished twelfth but will not have time next to his name.
Check the results:
