Leading cyclocross racer Lars van der Haar has announced he will retire at the end of the season, pulling down the curtain on a career that includes U23 World Championships and European Championships titles, as well as multiple World Cups.
Known for his well-honed technical skills and powerful accelerations, Van der Haar kicked off his pro career back in 2012 with a bang as when he took a World Cup win at Tabor – the first of nine to date.
He went on to win the World Cup overall classification for a first time in 2013, also taking outright victories in the Superprestige and X2O Badkamers Trophy. The Dutch national title was also captured by Van der Haar four times.
Although he has yet to win the Elite Men's Cyclocross World Championships outright, Van der Haar has been on the podium eight times, including silver in Fayetteville behind Tom Pidcock in 2022. But many would say that Van der Haar's defeat of Wout van Aert in the first edition ever of the European Cyclocross Championships back in 2015 constituted the high point of his career.
As the end of a remarkable career looms, Van der Haar explained in an Instagram post titled 'The Final Season!' that he had spent some considerable time reflecting on his options before deciding to hang up his wheels.
"I've had an amazing time on the bike for almost 25yrs. It created a whole life for me.
"I had the chance to work close with my family and friends. I’ve got a whole cross family and I found my wife because of cycling," the Baloise Glowi Lions rider said.
"This past year I found it hard to push myself in training and that made me think about whether this is still something I want to keep doing.
"After a really hard and difficult period of mixed thoughts, weighing up the pros and cons, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to go for one more season and really give it everything this year and then start/find a new life and rhythm."
