Mathieu van der Poel won his third 2025-2026 UCI Cyclocross World Cup race in eight days at Sunday’s sixth round in sandy Koksijde, Belgium. Sunday’s runner up Laurens Sweeck extended his series lead–the Belgian is now 18 points on top of Michael Vanthourenhout. Tyler Clark was top Canadian in 36th.
Earlier in Sunday’s program, Liam Sargent was top Canadian in the U23 men’s race at 48th, while Rhett Bates placed 57th, and in the Junior men’s race, Evan Moore came 38th and Sagan Goertz was 40th, with Emiel Belzile 43rd, William Houle 59th and Grayson Franks 70th.
Preliminaries
Following a lousy Antwerp race, Thibau Nys lost the series lead to Sweeck by three points. Vanthourenhout lingered a point behind the absent Nys.
Tyler Clark and Cody Scott made up the Canadian contingent.
Toon Aerts was an early leader on Lap 1, Tibor Del Grosso close on his wheel. Del Grosso then pulled the long string. Van der Poel found his teammate in a sand section. Sweeck kept ahead of Vanthourenhout. Van der Poel led Niels Vandeputte, Del Grosso, Sweeck and Aerts over the line, 8:33 for the opening circuit. Clark was 32nd
Van der Poel started to go clear early in Lap 2. Sweeck used his sand skills to keep close tabs on the world champion. The quintet reformed before the line. Clark was up to 31st.
Vandeputte wanted to set the pace on Lap 3 of 7. Vanthourenhout led a chase group 14 seconds behind. With three Alpecin-Deceuninck riders aboard, the Koksijde Five nearly kept intact, a fall in the sand delaying Aerts and Sweeck. Clark raced at 33rd.
On the middle lap, van der Poel moved to the front and hit the turbo, Aerts and Sweeck scrambling to get back on even terms. The man in the rainbow jersey was gone, taking 20 seconds into Lap 5.
Sweeck was the only chap preventing Alpecin-Deceuninck from running the podium. Aerts still hoped to be in the final reckoning. On the penultimate lap, Del Grosso edged away from his companions, regularly stretching his back. Sweeck yanked him back on the bell lap and then dispatched the Alpecin duo.
2025-2026 UCI Cyclocross World Cup, Round 6, Koksijde
1) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherlands/Alpecin-Deceuninck) 56:36
2) Laurens Sweeck (Belgium/Crelan-Corendon) +0:07
3) Niels Vandeputte…
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