Mathieu van der Poel made the best of a cancelled race day after the Koksijde World Cup was cancelled on Sunday due to high winds. Van der Poel opted to ride back to Antwerp after the organizers announced that all races would be cancelled.
Van der Poel expressed his disappointment after the organizers made the announcement that the fourth round of the World Cup was cancelled. The former cyclocross world champion argued that the decision was made too far in advance—four and a half hours before the men’s race was scheduled for—since the forecast was for lighter winds in the afternoon.
Sporza called Van der Poel on Monday morning to ask how he got that idea. “It was actually the idea of my brother David. We both did not want to return home by car and then decided to ride. We were just the two of us, there was no one else,” said Van der Poel.
“We left Koksijde at around 11.30 when there was still light. In Antwerp it was getting dark and I took pictures of the new headquarters.”
Van der Poel uploaded the ride to Strava, calling it ‘Change of plan’ but also commented that it was a ‘little more than expected’.
“David had his bike GPS. In Ghent, we really needed it because it was unknown terrain. The GPS took a little too many small oads and winding paths, so we stopped a few times to see on our smartphones what direction we had to go. “
“Eventually we rode along canals and the route was a little longer than we thought, but no problem. We had the wind in our back. In the beginning there was still a lot of wind, which was very nice. There were a few sections in headwinds and we had to work hard there.”
Across the border in the Netherlands, the conditions proved ideal for the fourth edition of the Dutch National Headwind Championships.
