David van der Poel retires from professional cycling

David van der Poel has retired as a professional cyclist after the finishing his last race, the Sluitingsprijs Putte-Kapellen in Belgium on Thursday. The oldest of the Van der Poel brothers confirmed this in an interview with WielerFlits after completing the event.

“Why am I stopping right now? Firstly, because I was at the end of my contract with the team,” the 31-year-old said. “We sat down together to see how the team saw it, how I saw it. A month or two ago, we decided it was better to put an end to it.”

In January, Van der Poel decided to put an end to his cyclocross racing, a discipline that had been plagued by a persistent back issue for a long time.This back problem had no bearing on his decision to retire from the sport.

“No, my back only really bothered me in the field anyway. And I had that under control in the meantime. Last winter I was able to enjoy the cross country again, even if it was not in the vanguard. I was able to do the races I wanted again, and that was the case on the road this season as well.”

Mathieu’s older brother has been a professional racer since 2011 and had his biggest wins in CX, the Czech Toi Toi Cup and Swiss EKZ Cross Tour. He additionally took the Dutch title in the junior category. In recent years, due those persistent back issues he shifted his focus more towards road racing.

His last race wasn’t a dramatic affair, and that was his choice.
“That’s not how I am or what I want. I don’t want too much fanfare around my farewell. The people around me already knew, of course, but otherwise I tried to think about it as little as possible,” he said. “I wanted to keep
training like I always did and keep giving it my all in the races.”
The Dutchman came close to winning on Tuesday. He took second in the 149.5 km one-day to Coen Vermeltfoort of the VolkerWessels Cycling Team.

Coen Vermeltfoort remporte le GP de cloture #sluitingsprijs Putte Kapellen devant David van der Poel et Jordan Habets.#cyclisme #wielrennen pic.twitter.com/toLvABY5wu

— 🚴 Les Rois du Peloton 🚲 (@LRoisDuPeloton) October 17, 2023