After two months away from racing, Mathieu van der Poel returns to action this week as he begins his final build-up to the Tour de France and a tilt at two rainbow jerseys at the World Championships in Glasgow.
The Dutchman last pinned on a race number en route to victory at Paris-Roubaix in April, and he resumes his season at Dwars door het Hageland on Saturday before lining out at next week’s Baloise Belgium Tour. Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon from a training camp at La Plagne, he outlined why he preferred to run through his scales in Belgium rather than at the Tour de Suisse.
“It’s better to go all out and try to win in Belgium than be in the gruppetto in Switzerland,” Van der Poel said. “And when you factor in the time trials, I think Suisse and Belgium is almost the same amount of racing days.”
Van der Poel will have no shortage of racing days in the weeks ahead, and he confirmed that he would compete in both road and mountain bike events in Glasgow during the first edition of the UCI’s quadrennial, multi-discipline World Championships. The road race takes place on August 6, with the mountain bike event following six days later.
While a first elite world title on the road will be the main focus of his Scottish expedition, Van der Poel is mindful, too, of the need to start scoring qualification points if he is to compete for mountain bike gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Van der Poel was favourite for gold in Tokyo two years ago only to crash out of the event.
“We’ve talked about it here in La Plagne. Normally, I will also do the Worlds on the mountain bike the week after the Worlds on the road, but without any specific preparation,” said Van der Poel.
“I will try to go there without any pressure and just try to adapt by riding a bit on the mountain bike the week after the road Worlds. I will be there anyway, so maybe something nice can happen there. Of course, the shape should be good from the road Worlds, so I’ll give it a try and see where it ends.”
There are only 36 athlete spots for the cross-country race at the Olympics, with the top eight countries earning two places. The Netherlands is currently ranked 31st in the standings, which puts the onus on Van der Poel to race mountain bike events in the latter part of the season, starting with the Glasgow Worlds.
“It will not be easy to get there and that’s also the reason why I’m taking the chance and going to the Worlds without any mountain bike training…
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