Van der Poel pushed him aside, but his story is worth knowing: from living on the street to the elite of cyclocross

As much as you religiously follow the CX season, it's very likely that the name Felipe Nystrom didn't mean anything to you until yesterday. This Costa Rican usually occupies the tail positions in the World Cup and yesterday he occupied a large part of the media space for being right in the middle when Mathieu van der Poel was about to lap him.

Still alone in the world in Gavere, Mathieu van der Poel had to avoid a competitor... who was taking a photo with the public. The latecomer was lapped as early as the 3rd lap. #CXWorldCuppic.twitter.com/5uVGeBNF5l

— Le Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) December 26, 2023

But the results are not relevant in the story of Felipe Nystrom, who in a decade has gone from living on the street to the elite of cyclocross. The key to it is understanding the power that the bicycle (and sport in general) has to transform lives... and even to save them.

How Felipe Nystrom discovered cycling

This man's tragedy begins very early. As he has told in numerous interviews, a childhood full of physical and sexual abuse pushed him into alcoholism and drugs. At 27, with a 3-year-old son, he was living as a homeless person in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, and was suffering from deep depression. Seeing no way out, in 2012 he tried to take his own life for the seventh time.

Today, Nystrom remembers that at that very moment, when he felt he had hit rock bottom, he made "a pact" with himself, which he had made before, but had never had the strength to fulfill: if he was still in this world the next day, he would try to do something with his life. Whatever it was, as long as he got out of that hole. When he woke up, after the doctors revived him, he went straight to a detox clinic, where he spent the next 6 months.

There, he fell in love with a woman from Portland, on the west coast of the United States, and when he left, he went to live with her in Oregon. Things didn't work out, but Felipe found that new life helpful in distancing himself from his demons, so he stayed there. He got several jobs (up to 7 different ones at the same time) but, after 2 years, he realized that he was very lonely: he had no friends, and he only knew how to make them in the bar. Determined not to relapse, he thought that sport would be a good way to meet people, and he signed up for a couple of beginner triathlons, with a rented bike and suit. And, to his surprise, he won both. It was 2014.

Thinking that maybe this was his thing, he joined a triathlon club and there he made a Puerto Rican friend, but neither swimming nor running really fulfilled him. So he took out a $5,000 loan to buy a decent bicycle and signed up with his friend for an amateur road race. He also won there. That's right, against 14-year-old kids. And he started competing constantly: he raced 110 races in his first year.

Felipe Nystrom's dream of becoming a world champion comes true

This budding cyclist gradually improved his road performance and, in 2019, he traveled to his country to participate in the National Championship just for the pleasure, without any ambition. Without a team, because his club was in Portland, and without race assistance, he ended up winning the gold (of course, Andrey Amador did not participate in that edition, let it be clear). Above you have the photo of the podium. Shortly after, he learned that the 2022 CX World Championship would be held in the United States. And there his dream was born: he had two years to make the jump to this discipline and get on the list of participants.

Something quite complicated when one is not a professional. Because Felipe earns his living as an English-Spanish interpreter in a hospital, and he pays for everything: from bicycles and spare parts to trips (by the way, as if that were not enough, he is also studying for a master's degree). Thanks to his victory in the 2019 National Championship, he managed to talk to the president of the Costa Rican Cycling Federation and they reached an agreement: the Central American country would register him in the CX World Cup races, as long as he took care of the bills. 

And, said and done, with his Costa Rica jersey bought with his own money, he showed up at the starting line of the first races, which were held in the United States: Waterloo, Fayetteville and Iowa. Only then did he find out that he was the first Costa Rican in the history of the CX World Cup (this country has a little more history in MTB, as it organizes one of the toughest races in the world, the Route of the Conquerors), and the only Latin American currently in a competition that is quite Eurocentric.

The last twist in this incredible story (which seems like the opposite reflection of Missy Giove's story) comes when a friend of his created a page to help him on the crowdfunding network Gofundme, with which he raised $3,500. Thanks to them, Felipe was able to fly to Belgium and the Netherlands for a week in 2021 to compete in the Rucphen, Namur and Dendermonde races, and thus prepare his big goal: the Fayetteville elite World Championship.

There, of course, he didn't win. The one who did was a predestined kid named Tom Pidcock. He crossed the finish line more than 6 minutes after the British. But, yes, having won the affection of the public, who shouted "Costa Rica, Costa Rica!", seeing the last rider pass (and suffer). Although of course, with a life story as exciting, unfortunate and inspiring as this, for him suffering is something else.