Mathieu van der Poel made his return to ‘cross after several skipped races due to injury—and he did so just like he left off: utter domination. There have been plenty of unique victory salutes in cycling history, but fans were left wondering what his phone call gesture meant.
The world champion made a triumphant return to cyclocross after a 34-day break due to a rib injury, claiming victory in the penultimate round of the 2024-2025 UCI World Cup in Maasmechelen, Belgium. Starting from the second row, van der Poel surged to the front by Lap 2, while rival Wout van Aert, starting from the fourth row, battled through crashes but managed to secure second place with a determined solo chase. Joris Nieuwenhuis rounded out the podium in third after a long break in racing due to sickness.
“This is the most enjoyable cross race I’ve ridden in a long time,” van der Poel said to Sporza.
When asked about his victory salute, it turns out it was a birthday present to double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel. The two riders, although rivals, are close friends. Today is Evenepoel’s birthday, and he asked van der Poel to do the phone call salute if/when he won.
“I congratulated Remco this morning on his 25th birthday, and he asked me to do this gesture as a gift. I’m not sure if he watched, but he’ll probably see it,” the Dutchman said.
And he sure did.
“Call received, bro,” Evenepoel posted on Instagram Stories.
As far as his injury, van der Poel also revealed it wasn’t simply bruised—but fractured.
“I could feel it, but it didn’t bother me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have started,” he said. “It’s not 100 per cent healed yet, but hopefully, it will be close by next week’s World Championship. I often feel better than expected after a heavy training week.”
The final World Cup is Sunday in Hoogerheide, The Netherlands. You can watch it for free on the UCI YouTube channel, or if you have a FloBikes account, go to FloBikes.com.
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