Mathieu van der Poel and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado triumphant in Koksijde
There were wins from both ends of the spectrum at the UCI Cyclo-cross in Belgium, with van der Poel adding to his incredible record in 2019 and del Carmen Alvarado taking her first World Cup victory.
By Matt Ogborn
2 min readPublished on
Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel continued his amazing 2019 bike dominance with his second consecutive 2019/2020 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup win at the Koksijde stop in Belgium.
Van der Poel sat out the first three rounds of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup season to focus on his road cycling, which paid off handsomely with a superb Tour of Britain victory in the wake of classic wins at Amstel Gold Race, Dwars door Vlaanderen and Brabantse Pijl. The 24-year-old also pushed Swiss XCO legend Nino Schurter hard in the 2019 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup title race thanks to three victories and a second place.
Watch the moment he sealed the win in Koksijde below:
1 minMen's CX finish – KoksijdeWatch as the top riders reach the finish line of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup stop in Koksijde, Belgium.
Watch
Back in cyclo-cross, Van der Poel came into the fifth round of the 2019/2020 World Cup season buoyed by his victory at last week's Czech Republic stop in Tabor. He started badly this time around, but stormed back to pass the whole field during a spectacular opening lap before pulling clear to win from Belgium's Laurens Sweeck and Belgian champion Toon Aerts.
He revealed: "It was definitely one of my best first laps ever. I got stuck behind a crash in the first corner and I wanted to take my time to get back to the front, but I felt immediately that I had really good legs. Before I knew it, I was back in second. I rode my own race. That's always a good idea in the sand. It's the easiest way. Of course, one day I'm going to lose one. You can't win them all. I'm already very proud of what I achieved the past few weeks."
The women's race saw a first victory for 21-year-old Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado of the Netherlands. The reigning European U23 champion held off the challenge of compatriots Yara Kastelijn and Lucinda Brand to claim the win. Current World Cup leader Katerina Nash struggled in the sand, finishing down in 14th.
See Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado claim her first World Cup:
2 minWomen's CX finish – BelgiumWatch as the top riders battle it out for their place across the finish line in Koksijde, Belgium.
Watch
Speaking after the race, del Carmen Alvarado said: "This is massive, it’s unbelievable. This is a great race: getting my first-ever World Cup victory as an U23-rider in the elite category is really fantastic."
With your consent, this website shall use additional cookies (including third party cookies) or similar technologies to make our site work, for marketing purposes and to improve your online experience.
You can revoke your consent via the Cookie Settings in the footer of the website at any time. Further information can be found in our Privacy Policy and in the Cookie Settings directly below.
Privacy Preference Center
When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
More information
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
Performance
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Third Party Content Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by third-party providers of third-party content that is embedded on our site. They may be used by those companies to load, display, or in other ways to enable you to use that content. As this third-party content is provided by autonomous companies on their own responsibility, those companies may also use these cookies for their own additional purposes, such as marketing. Please refer to the privacy policies of those companies for that information. If you do not allow these cookies, you will not be able to use this third-party content embedded on our site, such as videos, music, or maps.