Is Mathieu van der Poel having second thoughts about the Olympic XC race?

Mathieu van doer Poel could finally leaving his cursed mountain bike Olympc quest behind, at least for now.

In an interview with Het Nieuwsblad, the Dutch star revealed that he is still focused on the Olympics, but is not quite sure what races he is targeting just yet.

“The Games will be one of the main goals,” van der Poel said, adding “although it will be a difficult puzzle to solve.”

Evolving plans, tumultuous Tour

The latest statement from van der Poel hints at a significant detour in his constantly shifting race schedule. After previously suggested he would spend much of 2023 on dirt, there was very little mountain biking in van der Poel’s calendar this year. That might have been the first sign of a shift in his priorities away from XCO and towards road.

Not that that would be surprising. He is now the men’s road world champion, which comes with some pressure to represent that jersey in 2024. And his attempt at the double road-cross country mountain bike at 2023 worlds in Scotland didn’t go according to plan.

Despite the sub-par experience in Scotland, he apparently still believes it is still possible to chase both road and dirt at the Olympics. It is, apparently, the Tour de France that potentially throws a spanner in that plan.

“Either I’ll ride the Tour de France and then I’ll only do the road race at the Games. Or I don’t ride the Tour and then I do the Olympic road race and mountain bike,” van der Poel said, adding “The mountain bike is too early, only one week after the Tour. I’ll never reach my best level that way.”

In 2021, van der Poel started the Tour de France with the intention of abandoning early to head to the Olympics in Japan. Despite the 2024 Olympics and Tour being much closer together, both in France, a repeat of that plan is not on the table.

“What I am certainly not going to do is ride the Tour and then leave it earlier, like I did for Tokyo.”

A notable XCO career

The Dutch phenom is an impressive mountain biker. With so many World Cup wins to his name it is foolish to say otherwise. But several auspicious incidents have plagued his fat-tire career. Unfortunately, these events usually happen when the spotlight is the brightest. A rider that normally excels under pressure, at least in cyclocross and on the road, just can’t seem to get the major events right on flat bars.

In 2021, van der Poel famously crashed in the Tokyo Olympic XCO race. He was racing for the lead with eventual winner, Tom Pidcock, but all anyone remembers is him cartwheeling off the Sakura Drop.

In 2023, the UCI gave van der Poel, Pidcock and Peter Sagan a controversial last-minute bump up the start grid. Pidcock and Sagan argued it was both unfair and un-asked for, the latter especially did not seem to enjoy being passed constantly in the opening laps of his retirement tour, but van der Poel’s camp was silent. Then, on race day, the Dutch racer crashed on a gravel corner in the start loop. No problem, right? He fell a week earlier in the road race and won a world championships. Well, falling on the same side again apparently hurt more and, after being very slow to get up off the ground, MvdP DNF’d the XCO.

So, Paris then?

At first blush, the Paris XCO course looks tailor-made to van der Poel’s strengths. It’s not particularly technical but it will require a ton of raw power and speed. Then again, it has large sections of gravel and, not to keep bringing up what is surely a sore point for the Dutch star, a gravel corner is what took him out in 2023 world championsihps.