"As far as I know that has never been discussed" - Christoph Roodhooft dispels talk of Mathieu van der Poel quitting cyclocross

Immediately following his sixth Cyclocross World Championship title on Sunday afternoon in Tabor, Czech Republic, talk of Mathieu van der Poel potentially quitting the discipline to focus on road racing have been running rife.

Van der Poel's Alpecin-Deceuninck team boss Christoph Roodhooft, however, moved quickly to quieten such talk in a post-race interview with Wielerflits. "As far as I know that has never been discussed," he explains. "Never say never, of course, but I don't see it happening right away."

In his own post-race interview, van der Poel admitted he doesn't have much left to do in cyclocross. Perhaps the only thing that could keep the Dutchman around in coming winters would be the potential of taking the Erik De Vlaeminck's record of seven world titles. 

"I actually understand that statement," Roodhooft says of van der Poel's post-race interview. "For other riders, it might be nice to win 10 or 12 times, but with him, it's only about the World Championships. We'll definitely celebrate this, but it's also different because we're so far from home. You prefer to celebrate these big wins with the entourage there and that's a bit more difficult now."