You hate to see it 💔 Mathieu van der Poel crashes out on the first lap of the Cross-country Olympic race. Sending him all the best 🫶 #GlasgowScotland2023 | #PowerOfTheBike
"I'm pretty mad at myself for making such a stupid mistake" - Mathieu van der Poel on the aftermath of XCO World Championships crash
CyclingSunday, 13 August 2023 at 14:52
Mathieu van der Poel has had an unique approach to these World Championships and seeked a result and UCI points today at the XCO Mountain Bike race. However he abandoned in the first lap, crashing in a slippery corner right in the first minutes of the race.
“I felt like doing another mountain biking race and seeing where I could come from today. Most of all, I'm pretty mad at myself for making such a stupid mistake on one of the easiest sections of the course," van der Poel said following his abandon. “The blow was a little too big." On the final corner of the first lap he slipped out and went down. A crash in a seemingly innocent spot, but enough to put him out of the race, hitting his knee and also injuring himself in the face.
"It was also on the side where the wounds were still open from the fall in the road race. That took a while. In the end I think it won't be too bad, but now it's time to relax and still enjoy last week's world title," he says, having abandoned on the spot, but not feeling overly bad about it.
The chances of making it to the Paris Olympic Games, despite this mishap, continue to exist, and will be the goal that he keeps regarding this discpline. "I still like to do it. We'll see, it's just a matter of seeing what we're going to do in the future. But Paris remains the goal," he concluded.
Read also
claps 1visitors 9112
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- i don’t know nearly as much about bruyneel or hincapie as most of us do about lance, but we judge people by the company they keep. i hand no idea what psychological problems the other two have, but there’s gotta be something pretty severely wrong with them if they continue to choose to be close to armstrong.OCexile26-12-2024
- Ayuso and Rodriguez are only 22 and 23. Don't pressure it as they're still so sooo young.
James2631826-12-2024 - Not sure that can be true, in that USA Cycling is part of the UCI.acem8226-12-2024
- Oh, and yes: I am no psychiatrist/psychologist, but Bruyneel and Texas Turd are both sociopaths. It goes well beyond "protect my world and anyone would" that is the usual zeitgeist of their bullshit. No normal person has Bob Roll go at Greg Lemond with an audio recording device at Ron Keifel's bike shop...for example.EricJensenRidesBikes26-12-2024
- Funnier: this website keeps giving credo to their ramblings. In this case, why in any possible way would Boonen want to create a fantasy world to attach himself to these two clowns when more likely he would want to forget he was even there? Laughable.EricJensenRidesBikes26-12-2024
- A sociopath is an informal term used to describe someone with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), a mental health condition characterized by a chronic pattern of disregard for social norms, laws, and the rights and feelings of others.EricJensenRidesBikes26-12-2024
- Rowe spent his whole career on one team being nothing more than a thug for Skyneos. I have no idea why another team would want import this type of person into their program.Sweep26-12-2024
- “CyclingUpToDate would like to extend it's condolences to family and friends of Pascal.” Paging a copy editor….menk26-12-2024
- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024