“Nothing is impossible” - Mathieu van der Poel finally arrives in Montreal still carrying World Championship hope despite lowered expectations and jet-lag concerns
Cycling
Mathieu van der Poel has arrived in Montreal for Sunday’s elite men’s World Championships road race, just two days after completing his final preparation in Europe with a remarkable 174-kilometre solo victory at the Tour de Luxembourg.
The Dutchman travelled to Canada on Tuesday, only five days before the 273.7-kilometre road race, after choosing Luxembourg rather than the recent Canadian WorldTour races as his final competitive block.
That schedule has prompted questions over jet lag and acclimatisation, with a six-hour time difference separating Europe and Montreal and several of Van der Poel’s main rivals having already spent more than a week in Canada.
Jan Bakelants has been among those to question the timing. “It is by no means an advantage to leave so late,” he said. “I understand that Wout wanted to be home for a while after all those weeks away, and I understand that Mathieu preferred to race in Luxembourg, but I am afraid the jet lag is still lingering in their bodies.”
Van der Poel nevertheless arrives with plenty of belief. “Nothing is impossible. A World Championship is always a special race,” he said. “There are no earpieces; it is an open race, and the racing often starts from a long way off. I am looking forward to it.”
Van der Poel leads Dutch hopes in Montreal
Luxembourg ends with one last major show of form
The Tour de Luxembourg finished on Sunday, with Van der Poel ending the race in extraordinary fashion by riding alone for 174 kilometres on the final stage. “I had incredible legs,” he said afterwards.
He had already won the opening stage earlier in the week and used the five-day race to rebuild road rhythm following his recent mountain-bike block. Van der Poel had taken the same route into the 2024 World Championships, racing in Luxembourg before travelling to Zurich and taking bronze on a course containing more than 4,000 metres of climbing.
This time, the timing leaves only a handful of days between his arrival in Canada and the start of the road race. Belgian team doctor Kris Van der Mieren has pushed back against concerns that such a window is necessarily too short for elite riders.
“We are talking about top athletes here. And all studies show that they recover from such jet lag much faster,” he said. “You’re not talking about one day per hour, but rather one day per hour and a half or two.”
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The Montreal course contains 3,803 metres of climbing across 273.7 kilometres, with 12 laps of the Mount Royal circuit and repeated ascents of Camillien-Houde and Polytechnique.
Remco Evenepoel, Isaac Del Toro and Paul Seixas have all already raced on those roads this month. Del Toro won the GP Montreal ahead of Seixas, while Evenepoel finished fifth before returning to the city to claim a fourth consecutive world time trial title.
“I don’t think that solo in Luxembourg changes my status much,” Van der Poel said. “I don’t think I’m the top favourite, rather one of the outsiders. If I am the top favourite, I never hide, but there are riders with a better chance on this course than me. But of course, there are opportunities.”
Van der Poel won the elite road world title in Glasgow in 2023 and finished third in Zurich a year later. He skipped the 2025 edition in Kigali and returns to the Worlds this year after two stage wins in Luxembourg, including Sunday’s 174-kilometre solo.
The lack of race radios will also change the way the elite men negotiate the Mount Royal circuit once the race begins to fragment. “There are no earpieces; it is an open race, and the racing often starts from a long way off,” Van der Poel said.
His first task in Canada is now considerably more routine than anything he produced in Luxembourg: recover from Tuesday’s flight, adjust to the six-hour time difference and complete his final days of preparation before the elite men roll out on Sunday.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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