Mathieu Van der Poel Devastates Cyclocross Fans with New Claim

With five World Championship titles under his belt, Mathieu Van der Poel may be considering hanging up his cyclocross bike for a while.

After two years of struggling with back issues, it may be time for the triple-threat road, MTB and CX racer to pick a lane and take more time off throughout the year. And sadly for cyclocross fans, that may look like less racing in the mud.

According to a recent interview with Dutch website WielerFlits for RIDE magazine, Van der Poel is unsure how much longer he’ll continue with cyclocross. With the road and MTB seasons starting seemingly earlier and earlier and running later and later in the fall, it’s hard to add another season of racing while also recovering.

Consider that some MTB and CXers were able to go directly from the Mont St. Anne and Snowshoe MTB World Cups in North America in October to the Cyclocross World Cup in Wisconsin to kick off that season: There simply isn’t an opportunity for downtime. (And if UCI President David Lappartient gets his way and cyclocross racers have to do the full World Cup schedule in order to race World Championships... Well, that’s going to make CX even less appealing for the Van der Poels, Van Aerts, Vos’s, Ferrand-Prevots, Richards and Pidcocks of the world.)

Van der Poel says that the primary concern for him isn’t just the lack of offseason, it’s his back, which has bothered him since the crash at the Tokyo Olympics when he went off of the large rock drop unaware that the ramp had been removed.

He said the injury doesn’t both him on the road, but cyclocross with its bike carrying and strange set of physical demands is a different animal. And at 28 years old, he’s likely feeling the strain of over a decade of racing and training as a pro.

“Now that I’m focusing on cross again for the winter months, we have to wait and see how that back will hold up. That uncertainty will always remain,” he said.

He added that he’s discussed the possibility of striking cyclocross from the schedule with his team—but not just yet.

Still, cyclocross fans will be appalled by this quote: “An occasional winter without cyclo-cross would also be nice,” he told RIDE editor-in-chief Raymond Kerckhoffs in the interview. “I actually do racing purely for fun. And of course the world title is still an important goal. I actually see the rest of the season more as a winter activity.”

And then, the kicker: “There is no longer much for me to gain in terms of sport.”

Ouch.

All of that said, cyclocross fans don’t need to panic just yet: He’s still planning to race around a dozen cyclocross races this season, including defending his World Championship title in early February.

Let’s just hope that the other all-arounders/double-sport athletes like Wout Van Aert, Thomas Pidcock, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, Evie Richards, Marianne Vos, Lotte Kopecky and Lucinda Brand don’t feel the same way.

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