Zonhoven in January is never subtle, and in 2026 it leaned fully into its reputation. The sand was heavy, the frozen ruts were unforgiving, and the margins were measured in half-decisions. Across the elite races on Sunday 4 January 2026, both winners were shaped by the same theme: the riders who survived the chaos best, and corrected fastest, took control when it mattered.
In the women’s race, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado turned an early crash into a statement win, capitalising on a late mistake from Lucinda Brand to break Brand’s streak and ride away. In the men’s race, Mathieu van der Poel delivered another one-hour display of control and speed, extending his unbeaten run this season on a day that turned nasty for several of the main contenders.
Women’s race: Alvarado comes from trouble to beat Brand on the final lap
For a course that punishes hesitation, the start was instantly hectic. Puck Pieterse launched best, creating early separation with Leonie Bentveld close and Brand already alert to the danger. The first key moment came quickly, and it came where it always can in Zonhoven: De Kuil.
On the second passage through the famous drop, all three of the main protagonists hit the deck in sequence. Pieterse went first, pitching over her bars after taking the wrong line. Brand fell almost at the bottom, and then Alvarado tumbled into Brand as the crash chain continued. Pieterse later laughed about the absurdity of it.
“It was pretty funny,” she said. “I thought: I’ve made another mistake, everyone will pass me. But then I saw Lucinda fall and thought: OK, I’m not the only one. And then Ceylin fell as well. I had to laugh that the three of us all crashed.”
Once the race began to settle into individual efforts, it looked briefly as if Pieterse might regain full control, but the course simply kept demanding too much precision. Brand had to fight her way back after another slide and a chain issue, coming through the first lap only fifth, while Pieterse led ahead of Bentveld, Van Alphen and Alvarado. Behind them, Brand’s response was immediate: she rode up to second on lap two, drove the pursuit, and stripped the chase down until the race became what everyone expected – Brand, Pieterse and Alvarado trading time and mistakes.
The lead changed hands when Pieterse slipped again later, gifting Brand the initiative. By mid-race, it was tight enough that one clean section could swing everything. Pieterse then paid a higher price with a bike change and fell to more than 20 seconds, leaving Brand to manage the one rival still within range. That rival was Alvarado, who stayed patient, hung on through the dangerous parts, and waited for the race to open.
It did, on lap five. Brand crashed hard early in the lap, and the gap collapsed. Alvarado came back, then went past when Brand dived into the pits. Suddenly, the race flipped. Alvarado had the lead, and within moments, she had built double digits, but she was not home. Brand’s best quality this season has been her ability to repair damage faster than anyone, and she did it again, cutting the gap to seven seconds at the start of the final lap.
Brand caught Alvarado mid-way through the last lap and immediately took over, pushing the pace to try to force the deciding error. It worked, but not in the way she wanted. Alvarado had to let a few metres go – and then Brand made her own mistake, needing to unclip and put a foot down. That was the window. Alvarado surged past, opened a gap instantly, and this time there was no road back.
After Friday’s win in Mol, it completed a weekend double for Alvarado, and she was clear about how the victory was built.
“Along the way I made many mistakes, and I think I was riding too long on the wrong tyres,” she said. “It was really slippery for me, but I never gave up. The mistakes were crucial.”
Brand, second, was blunt in her own assessment.
“I felt very strong, even after the heavy crash,” she said. “But I made too many mistakes. I could always come back, I could even take the initiative again, but if you keep making mistakes and someone else doesn’t… After that mistake in the last lap, there was just too little time.”
Pieterse completed the podium in third after leading early, but the repeated falls and the mid-race losses left her fighting to limit the damage rather than shape the finale.
World Cup Zonhoven 2026 Women result
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Men’s race: Van der Poel flawless again as the chase reshuffles behind
The men’s race began under the same frozen, hard-packed conditions, and it quickly became clear that Zonhoven was going to reward flow more than brute force. Van der Poel hit the opening lap in control and never really left that state, describing afterwards that he simply wanted to do “one hour full gas” before returning to Spain.
He built an advantage early, particularly through the sections that make Zonhoven so specific: the sand pit, the flyover, and the transitions where grip comes and goes in a heartbeat. Behind him, the chase was led at different points by riders including Emiel Verstrynge, with Toon Aerts, Niels Vandeputte, Joris Nieuwenhuis, Tibor del Grosso and Thibau Nys all involved as the race tried to take shape.
The defining incident behind the leader came on lap four, when Thibau Nys crashed heavily, went over the fencing and snapped the right drop of his handlebars. He was forced to run with the broken bike to the pits, losing decisive time before continuing. It turned a day where he could have been part of the podium fight into one of damage control, and he finished down the order.
At the front, the only real “moment” for Van der Poel came with a flat tyre mid-race. He rode a long stretch on the flat but did not panic, later explaining that the advantage he’d already built gave him the calm to manage the disruption. Behind, Del Grosso was the rider who made the late move stick, slipping away from the chase on the penultimate lap to secure second and complete an Alpecin-Premier Tech one-two, with Verstrynge holding on for third.
Van der Poel’s win was his ninth straight of the season, another clean, cold demonstration of why a frozen Zonhoven is still a place where the very best can make everyone else look ordinary.
World Cup Zonhoven 2026 Men result
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