Mathieu van der Poel might be talented, but can he match his training partner’s marathon time?

While Mathieu van der Poel gears up for his highly anticipated return to the cyclocross field this winter, his training partner Freddy Ovett has been making waves in a different discipline. The British-born Australian, who competed as a professional cyclist until 2022, put in an impressive performance at the Malaga Marathon this past weekend.

Ovett completed the marathon in a remarkable time of 2 hours, 34 minutes, and 48 seconds. Sharing his achievement on Strava, Ovett kept his message simple: “Never give up.”

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Ovett’s performance comes just weeks after Van der Poel himself turned heads with his own running feat. The cyclocross World Champion and Alpecin-Deceuninck rider added a new dimension to his off-season preparation last month by running a half-marathon in an impressive time of 1 hour, and 22 minutes.

Most cyclists don’t too much running training, as they prefer to focus on more bike specific endurance training. However, these times from Van der Poel and Ovett show just how fit these athletes are, and how efficiently there fitness translates to disciplines off the bikes. Clearly, the likes of Van der Poel could have had a strong career in other sports, and are truly superhuman talents.

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