A six-hour training ride vs a round of golf – Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel plot alternate routes to the cobbled Classics after CX Worlds

After the conclusion of the Cyclo-cross World Championships, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert are turning their attention to the upcoming Classics season. However, they are opting for quite different approaches.

Even as early as the day after Worlds, the champion Van der Poel headed to the golf course with a ski trip also in his immediate plans, while Van Aert was back on the bike, clocking in six hours and 168km of training on the road.

Van der Poel, who claimed a record-equalling seventh CX world title on Sunday, will kick off his 2025 road season earlier than last year on March 9 or 10, with either a debut at Paris-Nice or a fourth appearance at Tirreno-Adriatico.

His schedule isn’t fully confirmed but the Dutchman will then race Milan-San Remo and defend his titles at the Tour of Flanders, where a fourth win would make him the race’s most successful rider, and Paris-Roubaix, which he has won the last two editions of.

While he singled out Flanders as the main goal, Van der Poel will have Tadej Pogačar back to contend with in April. The world champion was the last man to beat him there in 2023 and long-term rival Wout van Aert will also be back after a crash ruled him out of Flanders and Roubaix last year.

“I fell in love with [the Ronde] when I first participated. But this year a certain Tadej Pogacar is participating. I will have to be in top form to be able to follow him,” Van der Poel told Sporza after ‘Cross Worlds.

“A few teams have become very strong in depth. When Tadej goes, a lot of teams know that it is very difficult to follow him.

“That will make it fun for the spectators because that means that the race will be opened up from very far away.”

Last year, Van der Poel was in a different league to everyone at Flanders when he attacked up the Koppenberg, before riding 44km solo to the line. But as UAE Team Emirates’ Nils Politt pointed out to Cyclingnews and Rouleur at the finish in 2024, “We have one guy in our team with Tadej [Pogačar], he’s the same, some guys are like this.”

It should see the fascinating battle which played out in 2022 and 2023 revisited, with Van Aert also hoping to be back at his best so he can compete after missing the former edition due to COVID-19 and getting dropped in the latter.

Van Aert by contrast, will soon head to Mallorca for training, before starting his road season with the Clásica Jaén on February 17 and Volta ao Algarve the week after in preparation for Opening Weekend – Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.

After that, the Belgian will train at altitude in preparation for the Monuments, again choosing to skip the Italian races Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, both of which he has already won, before returning at the E3 Saxo Classic on March 28.

His final appearance before Holy Week will be at Dwars door Vlaanderen, the race which ended his Classics season last year after a brutal crash. After all his bad luck of the past few seasons, Van Aert will then look to finally win the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix in April backed by a stacked Visma-Lease a Bike squad.