Mathieu van der Poel will not ride World Championship track the days before the race: “He handles it like he does at a normal cross. He may do a few laps on Sunday morning.”

One of the biggest contenders for the men's Elite road race, it would be expected that Mathieu van der Poel would ride a recon of the Hoogerheide track ahead of this Sunday's Cyclocross World Championships days in advance. However, that is not quite the situation, the Dutch team admits.

“Mathieu is not at the training sessions today. He never rides at a World Championships on Friday, usually not on Saturday either," team national coach Gerben De Knegt revealed to Wielerflits. “He handles it like he does at a normal cross. He may do a few laps on Sunday morning.”

The decision comes out of tradition. Most riders have been in Hoogerheide for these past few days riding the track, and making sure they known every single line in order to perform at their best in the World Championships. Not van der Poel however who will only put his wheels on the ground in the circuit this Sunday morning, hours before the race. Hoogerheide is however a traditional race on the cyclocross circuit and with certainty the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider knows about it quite well.

“How's the back? The last thing I know is it feels good," de Knegt answers. "I think he's good for it. It will be an exciting cross, I think he can be close. But we all know that the strong man from Belgium is also there."