“Mountain biking is his Achilles heel” – Can Mathieu van der Poel overcome past failures for another rainbow jersey?

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Mathieu van der Poel will delay his much anticipated return to mountain biking until next weekend. Initially scheduled to race at the Bike the Rock event in Heubach, Germany on May 18th, the Dutch superstar will now make his comeback at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup round in Nové Město, Czech Republic.

The decision postpones his return by a week but keeps his broader plan intact: to build towards winning a world championship in a fourth discipline. Van der Poel already has seven rainbow jerseys from cyclocross, one on the road, and one in gravel.

The Tour de France in July remains a central goal, but once that is completed, his focus will shift entirely to the MTB World Championships later in the season.

In a feature by Bici.PRO, Olympic and World Championship mountain bike bronze medallist Marco Aurelio Fontana offered his analysis of Van der Poel’s chances in what has become an increasingly technical and tactical discipline.

“He will find a different mix of characters and routes. I saw that they are working and so there will be new things on the route too. He will find the way bikers race today different, which is perhaps a way that he will like more or less. However, in my opinion, and we have seen it from the first two World Cup races: there is a new way of racing, more 'abstract', more fluctuating. There is a lot of refinement, there is a bit of team play, dynamics that he has already seen and experienced in cyclocross and on the road.”

Van der Poel hasn’t raced a mountain bike competitively since the Glasgow World Championships, where he crashed out early. Fontana acknowledged that the level of competition has continued to rise in his absence.

“He will find some changes compared to his last appearances and so it will be nice to see how he will adapt immediately or if it will take him a little while.”

While Van der Poel’s road engine is unmatched in terms of raw power, Fontana identified his MTB handling as the key question.

“The advantage is that big engine he has and those hours and that strength that the road gives you. The disadvantage will surely be if he doesn't use the mountain bike enough because, as he has already demonstrated, it is certainly one of the gods of cycling, but the MTB is a bit of his 'Achilles heel'. He is not very flexible in riding. On some occasions he has shown small uncertainties. So he must acquire that fluidity that only the use of the MTB can give him.”

Fontana pointed to previous crashes in Glasgow and Tokyo as examples of where Van der Poel’s technical riding has let him down, despite his otherwise peerless racing instinct.

“Because he has his heel there: he fell shortly after the start of the Glasgow World Championships and also in Tokyo, at the Olympics, he went down on a bridge that, all things considered, was not impossible. So I think he will prepare himself properly with the mountain bike to be ready this year, especially for the World Championships.

"While he showed us once again that he is incredible on the cobblestones, that he has a riding style with the road bike that is mind-blowing. Truly incredible. However, on the mountain bike we had already seen him in slight difficulty two years ago, at least compared to some riders. Today he will find himself with bikers who are even more stylish, even faster, even more determined.”

Still, Fontana believes that Van der Poel’s immense strength and experience across disciplines gives him a powerful foundation.

“Then it is also true that if he brings the pace from cyclocross and from the road a strength and mileage that no one who races MTB has, he remains a great athlete even in this discipline. But here, I see the only question mark linked to the fact that he must use the MTB more.”

Heubach, where Van der Poel was originally set to return, may have offered an ideal reintroduction to racing.

“In Germany he would have found a very long climb, where he could stretch out. The descent, especially if dry, is nothing special. If it had been wet it would have been a bit more complicated, but in reality Van der Poel’s problem is not in the wet. The problem is the type of technicality of the route and its modernity. Let's say that the 'Bike the Rock' route in Heubach would have been ideal for him to gain a bit of feeling.”

Instead, Nové Město will be the stage for his return. A venue he knows well, but one that may look slightly different this time.

“He knows Nové Město well too, even though there have been some changes. The good thing is that on that track, even if you start from behind and have the pace, you can obviously recover. There are very wide sections to climb back up. Nové Město has always been a race where, if you have a low lap time, you can be in fortieth on the first lap, but arrive in the top five.”

“It’s always beautiful, modern, but it’s always the same, so it becomes a bit mono-trajectory? I expect some changes to the route, there will be news for everyone, but Mathieu will have to be ready to see people flying at his sides! In general, however, let me say that it’s still nice to see a champion of his calibre return to MTB.”