Van der Poel's bold move in third lap secures victory in Gavere, completing a perfect three out of three

Van der Poel was at the start of his third cyclo-cross this season in Gavere. The multiple cyclo-cross world champion likes to turn his arrival at a race into a show, and Boxing Day was an ideal opportunity for that. So Van der Poel arrived with great interest in a striking orange-colored Lamborghini. With that entrance, the Van der Poel hype for the rest of the program was firmly cemented.

The cyclo-cross in Gavere is one of the most challenging on the calendar. The riders had to deal with many elevation changes and a technical descent. Van der Poel has won the race in Gavere four times already and—also given his performances in Zonhoven and Mol—was considered the absolute favorite for victory.

Nys had the best start. His teammate Lars van der Haar also started well in second place, which had often not happened in recent weeks. Van der Poel started a bit more cautiously, as in Mol, but found himself solidly in the top ten. Nys started vigorously and created a gap together with Vanthourenhout. However, Nys fell back to position three after he crashed into the fence.

On the second lap, Nys took the lead again. Together with Pim Ronhaar, Vanthourenhout, and Van der Poel, he was in the lead group. For Vanthourenhout, it was still not fast enough, and he accelerated. Van der Poel was right on his wheel, where Ronhaar had to leave a gap. Due to a slide in the descent, Ronhaar completely lost the connection. For Nys, it was all hands on deck. He fought his way back to Van der Poel's wheel with extreme effort.

The latter kept his cool for a while, but it wasn't long before his moment arrived. On the third lap, Van der Poel took the lead towards the slant. There, he placed his first attack. Nys had no response. Vanthourenhout resisted briefly but was unable to keep up with the world champion.

The die was cast. As in the past, Van der Poel decided the cross in his favor with a single attack. Nys and Vanthourenhout were already half a minute behind at the end of the third lap. Nothing could be done to counter Van der Poel's supremacy. An extended solo awaited the world champion, but he completed it skillfully. Thus, Van der Poel won his third cyclo-cross in five days.

The battle for the remaining podium spots was between Vanthourenhout, Nys, and Van der Haar. The latter came closer to the duo second by second. He was fourteen seconds behind Nys and Vanthourenhout with three laps to go. Where Van der Haar was getting up to speed, Nys was struggling. He had to let Vantourenhout go. However, he showed his best side by doing a solid lead for Van der Haar towards the finish line passage.

Van der Haar came to within seven seconds of Vanthourenhout. So the latter felt the heat and forced the pace back up. An ominous sign for Van der Haar was that Nys could keep his wheel, whereas, in the previous laps, he was riding around significantly faster than his teammate. Vanthourenhout started the final lap with a 15-second lead, which would be enough for second place. In doing so, he did excellent business for his leading position in the World Cup. Van der Haar lost third place to Nys due to a small mistake.