Mathieu van der Poel rounds off his perfect winter with the world title in Liévin

Only two corners were enough for Mathieu van der Poel to take the lead in his big goal of the season. Pushing from the start, leaving already in the first pass through the boxes, even before the first minute of the race was completed, the big favorite fulfilled the predictions comfortably to conquer his seventh rainbow jersey in the elite category. A victory that equals the Belgian Eric de Vlaminck as the cyclist with the most world championships in the mud discipline. Belgians Wout van Aert and Thibau Nys took silver and bronze.

Van der Poel's exhibition to put on a new rainbow jersey.

The absence of rain during the last 24 hours led to a more compact circuit, with harder mud and, therefore, the possibility of riding at a higher speed in the technical sections of the track. It did not matter or influence Van der Poel's race tactics too much, who in the first pass through the finish line already had a 20" advantage over the Belgian Laurens Sweeck. Van Aert, who had a very bad start, was in 16th place after climbing several positions in the second half of that first lap.

The differences increased at the end of the second lap, with Van Aert, however, close to catching up with a chasing quintet made up of his compatriots Vanthourenhout, Nys, Sweeck, and Verstrynge, and the Dutchman Nieuwenhuis. Felipe Orts, accurate and sharp at the start, was chasing just a few seconds behind. However, Van der Poel was already ahead of everyone by 45".

From worst to best, Van Aert secured an expected silver medal

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Designated as the only one capable of challenging the unanimous favorite for gold, the time wasted in the starting bottlenecks and the subsequent climb to catch up with the chasing quintet definitively buried Van Aert's chances of defeating an unreachable Mathieu van der Poel. The rider from Herentals reached the back of the group fighting for the medals at the end of the third lap and, immediately after, at the beginning of the fourth, he launched a strong attack that only the Dutchman Joris Nieuwenhuis could gradually follow, quite in shape in the final part of the season after not being able to compete for many weeks due to a physical problem.

With gold and silver secured, Van der Poel and Van Aert clocked almost the same lap times for several laps, the interest in the second half of the race focused on the battle for the bronze medal. Joris Nieuwenhuis and Thibau Nys were leading by a few seconds over Emiel Verstrynge and Laurens Sweeck in the fight for the last medal, the most open and uncertain position. Nys, the winner of the Benidorm World Cup two weeks ago, decided to change the pace just before the bell, leaving Nieuwenhuis behind and confirming the best outcome for Belgium, silver and bronze, while the rainbow jersey ended up on the shoulders of a Van der Poel who closes the winter with a full of victories in his cyclocross season and is only one World Championship away from confirming himself as the best in history. Felipe Orts, 12th, was the first non-Dutch or Belgian rider.

Mathieu van der Poel wins his seventh Cyclocross World Championship and becomes the most decorated of all time alongside Eric De Vlaeminck.

You saw it on @Eurosport_ES and @StreamMaxES. #Lievin2025 pic.twitter.com/DRSj7UXzMn

— Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) February 2, 2025

Liévin 2025 World Championship Classification

1st Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) 1h02'44"
2nd Wout van Aert (Belgium) at 45"
3rd Thibau Nys (Belgium) at 1'06"
4th Joris Nieuwenhuis (Netherlands) at 1'15"
5th Emiel Verstrynge (Belgium) a 1’53”
6th Toon Aerts (Belgium) a 1’56”
7th Michael Vanthourenhout (Belgium) a 2’00”
8th Joran Wyseure (Belgium) a 2’03”
9th Lars van der Haar (Netherlands) 2’09”
10th Laurens Sweeck (Belgium) a 2’28”

Fem van Empel led a Dutch triple in the women's race

Exciting development of an elite women's race that, in its outcome, repeated the podium of a year ago in Tábor. Fem van Empel reached her third consecutive rainbow jersey after a vibrant last lap in which the Visma | Lease a Bike rider overtook her compatriot Lucinda Brand. The recent World Cup champion tried to stand out on several occasions to avoid a sprint in which Van Empel would have had a better chance.

However, a mistake by the Baloise Glowi Lions rider on the last corner, a climb before the finish line, left Van Empel alone in the lead and she had plenty of time to celebrate the most important win of the cyclo-cross campaign. With Brand silver, fellow Dutch rider Puck Pieterse followed last year's third place to complete an all-Netherlands podium.

Liévin 2025 World Championship Classification

1st Fem van Empel (Netherlands) 54’29”
2nd Lucinda Brand (Netherlands) a 18”
3rd Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) a 1’09”
4th Inge van der Heijden (Netherlands) a 1’31”
5th Blanka Kata Vas (Hungary) a 1’56”
6th Sara Casasola (Italy) a 2’11”
7th Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Netherlands) a 2’36”
8th Hélène Clauzel (France) a 2’51”
9th Sanne Cant (Belgium) a 2’53”
10th Amandine Fouquenet (France) a 2’58”