CYCLO-CROSS

The exciting winter duel between the two cyclocross titans, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, came to an end on Sunday in Hoogerheide, Netherlands. Van der Poel managed to outsprint his rival and conquered the fifth golden medal of his career in men’s elite category.

With this victory, the Alpecin-Deceuninck team leader is officially the UCI Cyclocross World Champion. “I think if you take one of us two away, then it makes the races less interesting for sure. It was a good battle against Wout who is really hard to beat, so I’m happy,” van der Poel said.

Another long-disputed battle was fought on Hoogerheid ground between Puck Pieterse and Fem van Empel. After a new head-to-head race on Saturday, the 21-years-old Alpecin-Deceuninck rider achieved the silver podium in her first elite of Cyclocross World Championship.

“There were a few laps that we were looking at each other and seeing where the rest was riding but Fem and I kept the pace high,” Pieterse argued. “It comes down to the details and the form on the day. We had some great battles this season, every race is different of course.”

Getting the best out of a close battle with his rival Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel conquered on Sunday the first place at UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Benidorm.

“To win is always super nice, but in the end, I think it was just a really nice race. It was quite dangerous, slippery and really difficult to ride faster than we were doing. In the end, it was a great battle against Wout. I’m really happy to win,” said the Alpecin-FENIX team captain after his victory in Spain.

The same day, another exciting duel was fought in Benidorm between Fem van Empel and Puck Pieterse. In the final lap of the women course, van Empel got a terrific acceleration that only Pieterse could keep up with. It ended with the silver podium for the Alpecin- Deceuninck rider, who followed van Empel by 3 seconds.

“Fem and I made really good race until the end. She was just a tiny bit better today,” Pieterse commented.

On Sunday afternoon, skilfully coping with a mud pool left by overnight river flooding, Puck Pieterse arrived solo to the finish line of the Dutch National Championships in Zaltbommel. For the first time out of the under-23s, the rider gained the golden podium becoming the new Dutch Women Elite champion. She was followed by her Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, who broke the finishing line 26 seconds later.

“In the last lap, I noticed that Ceylin came very close. I had half a minute lead, then I thought: something really crazy must be happening. But of course, you still have to go full throttle, otherwise, you will give up half a minute, especially on such a tough course. When I saw Ceylin getting closer and closer, I just ran for my life,” the winner said in an interview post race.

Pieterse’s victory in Netherlands followed Sanne Cant’s fourteenth title as Belgian Cyclocross Champion. After her Lokeren solo victory on Saturday, the Crelan-Fristads rider announced that she would focus on the road season with FENIX-Deceuninck team.

Mathieu Van der Poel crossed first the finish line of the CX World Cup stage in Antwerp, Belgium, achieving an important victory. The Alpecin-Deceuninck captain closed the race in 59:04, just 23 seconds ahead of Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and now he is in the ninth position of the UCI World Cup Cyclocross 2022-2023 – Men Elite general classification.

This is his second win in the 2022-23 Cyclo-Cross season, after the victory on the CX Hulst race in the Netherland on November 27th. Two races and two first positions for the Flying Dutchman! He seems very satisfied about his performances and, in the interview after the race, said “I felt good, I was able to get a good gap, maintain it and I am pretty happy with today.”

Congrats Mathieu, we hope to witness many more magic moments in the future races.

Dutch rider Puck Pieterse won the 2022 European Cyclo-cross Championships after dominating the Women’s Under 23 race.

The 2022 edition of UEC European Cyclo-cross Championships took place in Namur, Belgium, a reference city for the sport. Pieterse crossed first the finish line with the time of 49 minutes and 02 seconds. The 20-year-old Dutchwoman took control right from the start of the race and held on to the lead right until the finish. Behind Pieterse, was the French rider Line Burquier (50″) and the 2021 European Champion Shirin van Anrooij (Netherlands), third at 1’27”.

In the Women’s Elite, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado finished second just 22” behind Fem Van Empel, who won the race in 50:25.

Congratulation to the Alpecin-Deceuninck ladies for their great performance.

Jakub Mareczko achieved the first victory of Alpecin-FENIX’s 2022 road season. The 27-year-old Italian rider won in a sprint the four and final stage of the Tour of Antalya 2022, ahead of  Arvid De Kleijn (Human Powered Health) and Matteo Malucelli (Gazprom-Rusvelo).

Mareczko crossed first the finish line in 3 hours, 40 minutes and 22 seconds after a 162 kms thrilling race long. He also won the general sprints points classification of this Turkish competition.

“I’m very happy with this win! Fabio, Simon, and Sam worked very hard and gave me a good leadout. We’ll try to do it again in the next races,” Mareczko said after winning the race.

This was his  first victory with Alpecin-FENIX with which he has a two-year contract.  Congratulations to Jakub and all the team for the great work.

Puck Pieterse won the 2022 U23 Women’s Cyclo-cross World Championship in Fayetteville after crossing first the finish line in 46 minutes and 27 seconds and beating her teammate Shirin van Anooij.

It was a nail-biting race characterized by the Dutch riders’ dominance, as Pieterse, van Anooij and Fem van Empel were in the lead almost throughout the six laps. The podium was completely Dutch, completed by van Empel who arrived third.

“It was such a weird race really. We kept overtaking each other and no one could get away. I had a plan to go away on the big climb,” Pieterse said in an interview after winning the rainbow jersey. “I didn’t know I had it at first, it was really close. I am glad we could get on the podium with three girls.”

In Fayetteville, the 19-year-old Alpecin-FENIX rider demonstrated once more the hard work and determination that she has shown consistently throughout the season. While she had been eight times on the podium and won theU23 GC in the World Cup, Sunday’s World Championship was her first victory of the 2021-2022 CX season.

The Lotto Six Days of Flanders-Ghent, where three 2021 Alpecin-FENIX riders participated, ended on Sunday November 21 with the victory of Kenny De Ketele and Robbe Ghys.

The Ghent Six Day ran for six consecutive days, starting on Tuesday, November 16. Every day, indoor races went into the late hours of one or two in the morning. This is a very particular and charming event with a long story behind: the first edition took place in 1922, and next year it will celebrate the hundredth anniversary!

The competition took place in the famous indoor track of  ‘t Kuipke in Ghent,Belgium.

Alpecin-FENIX’s Jonas Rickaert (Belgium) and Silvan Dillier (Switzerland)  ran in the same team. They closed the competition in the 8^th position with 156 points.
Otto Vergaerde also participated with Jules Hesters, collected 160 points closing at the 5^th place. Also 2022 signing Fabio van den Bossche took part in the competition, finishing 6^th.

David van der Poel won, with some comfort, his first cyclo-cross race of the season in Karrantza, Spain.

The Alpecin-FENIX Dutch rider crossed first the finish line of the third stage of the Copa de España de Ciclocross in 01:01:50, ahead of the Belgian Lander Loockx and the Spanish cyclist Kevin Suarez Fernandez.

Thanks to his win at Karrantza, his second position in Llodio last Saturday and in Pontevedra about a month ago, van der Poel now leads the Spanish competition classification with 65 points, followed by  Suarez Fernandez (57 pts) and Loockx (45 pts).

There are two races left in the Copa de España de Ciclocross: November 21st in Alcobendas and December 19th in Tarancón. Keep it up David! We are proud to cheer and support you in your endeavor!

The European Cyclo-Cross Championships 2021 in Col du Van – Drenthe,Netherlands, were held last weekend with positive results for the Alpecin-FENIX riders.

Both Niels Vandeputte and Puck Pieterse won silver medals in their U23 competitions.

On November 6th, the first day of the UEC Cyclo-Cross Championship, Vandeputte achieved the second position of the Under 23 race, just after Ryan Klomp who won by + 0.01 second of advantage. In the same competition Jente Michels finished 8^th, a promising result for one of the youngest Aplecin-FENIX riders.

The followinh day,r it was Puck Pieterse’s turn to defend her title in the U23 Women category. After a rough start, she crossed second the finish line at  44:26 with a gap of + 0.17 seconds behind  Shirin Van Anrooij.

In the Woman Elite category, Dutch cyclist and defending European champion Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado’s race had a bitter taste: due to the crash in the final lap, she finished 4^th. It was however, a good result.

Next year’s European Cyclo-Cross Championships will take place in Namur, Belgium, and we are sure the Alpecin-FENIX riders will be ready to fight for the top positions.