Mathieu van der Poel abandons Renewi Tour ahead of the queen stage with knee pain

A disappointment for Alpecin-Deceuninck who placed their GC hopes at the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel. However the world champion will not start today in the final stage of the Renewi Tour. Earlier in the race, Van der Poel narrowly avoided a crash in the individual time trial, but he did hit his knee and is still suffering too much from the aftermath.

Mathieu van der Poel gave all the fans a massive scare during the individual time trial in the Renewi Tour. The Dutchman lost control of his handlebars in a right-hand bend, but managed to narrowly avoid a disaster of hitting the barriers head-on at the last moment possible. Van der Poel seemed to escape unscathed, but he did hit his right knee in his near-crash.

The world champion was able to continue the Renewi Tour and played an important role for his teammate Jasper Philipsen in the subsequent sprint stages. With a perfect lead-out he managed to pilot Philipsen to victory in Aalter on Saturday.

"But the pain did not improve. In consultation with the team's medical staff, it was decided not to take any risks with regard to the rest of his program," Alpecin-Deceuninck said in a press release.

This is a big blow to Van der Poel, who had set his sights on the final stage of the Renewi Tour. "The last stage would have been extra taxing on the knee," the Dutchman says. "So I can't and won't take any risk of the injury getting worse. It's a shame, because I was really looking forward to the last stage on the Muur van Geraardsbergen."

Mathieu van der Poel's next race will come in two weeks from now with the European championships in and around Hasselt. Then he should take a start at the Tour of Luxembourg (September 18-22) and the World Championship road race (September 29) are also still on his programme.