Where is Mathieu van der Poel? Alpecin-Deceuninck boss shares update on World Champion's return to cyclocross
Cyclocross
Six-time world cyclocross champion Mathieu van der Poel has not competed since the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Besançon on 29th December. The Alpecin-Deceuninck star has been sidelined due to a rib injury sustained during the Azencross Loenhout.
Van der Poel is currently in Spain, focusing on his recovery and preparing for his return to competition. In an update provided to Wielerflits, Alpecin-Deceuninck team manager Christoph Roodhooft shared positive news about the rider's progress.
“Everything is fine. For what he has to do there now, training on the road, everything is fine. He is training on the road now, that was also the only option,” Roodhooft explained.
“He is training, and his injury is recovering,” the team boss added. Despite the injury, Van der Poel’s schedule in the lead-up to the Cyclocross World Championships in early February remains unchanged. He is still expected to race in the doubleheader events at Maasmechelen and Hoogerheide. “Yes, we assume that,” confirmed Roodhooft.
Dutch national coach Gerben de Knegt also provided insights into Van der Poel’s current state. “The latest update is that he is doing well. The burden is not too bad, and he has, if he didn't have that already, a lot of morale,” De Knegt said.
The coach emphasised that he is giving Van der Poel space as part of their agreed approach. “I don't have much contact with him, no. I leave him alone a bit. That's also our agreement, that I'm not going to bother him with everything. But he also has to do it again at the World Cup later. I have confidence in that, but it still has to happen,” De Knegt noted.
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- That’s big news??Mistermaumau13-01-2025
- Limit speed in a race? Why even race then? The only solution I can imagine is a mandatory safety course starting at grass roots. Or, it has to come down to safety equipment. Will there ever be a safe equivalent for cycling like the exploding chaps for motorbikes?
TRjens13-01-2025 - It would be difficult for him to ride the Tour even if he wanted to, as his team didn't obtain a wildcard invitation.
santiagobenites13-01-2025 - love ganna, always has a big smile on his face. would love to see him notch some big wins. MSR and Roubaix really are both kinda freak shows, never really know who’s going to take them. the strongest rider basically always wins a race like Flanders, but MSR is often about timing and Roubaix can have a lot to do with just luck. i don’t think ganna would ever be the per se “strongest” at either, not with pog, mathieu, wout and maybe mads around, but things could break right for a big engine like him in either or both.OCexile13-01-2025
- He probably won't be able to fight for GC podium in a grand tour anyway. I haven't seen anything to suggest otherwise. His performance wasn't consistent enough for 3 weeks of race.
KerisVroom13-01-2025 - AmenMistermaumau13-01-2025
- Thank you Thijs for bringing some rationality back into this pointless rant. I know of no sport that doesn’t see continuous improvement, either steadily or in erratic steps, all I see is that the average amateur now beats champions of 2-3 generations ago, this says it ALL, humans progress, all the time when they apply the collected knowledge and methods. Coming from another sport I was always surprised at how backward cycling training was in comparison, all they’ve done is catch up. There have always been individuals who lead the way in progress whilst the lower levels take more time to catch up, but catch up they always do. The 4 minute mile or 10s sprint was once seen as unattainable, I’m pretty sure Van Gelder has never looked at a list of how many have now run faster. Next is the 2h marathon. Yes, there are dopers trying to skip the line but that doesn’t mean you can just blindly accused a winner or the best. Pog is no better than Vin in certain situations, no better than MVDP in others and isn’t unbeatable, are ALL of them doping then, with the same miracle product/technique? And why is it just them, you’d imagine if it was so effective and untraceable, they’d ALL be buyers.Mistermaumau13-01-2025
- There is for and against, the discussion is definitely worth having in order to find acceptable compromise. I don’t really know why numbers are important, you can also just play with balancing, 3 or 4 promoted / demoted instead of 2? Reducing teams to 7 to accommodate 23 or 24? Also, before jumping the gun, they need to look at (possible) consequences, all of them which are often overlooked. There are huge implications financially, we should think carefully to see how things can’t be exploited by “investors” buying their way into GTs too easily, especially now that things like contract breaking has become nothing more than a financial burden.Mistermaumau13-01-2025
- Exactly, most people who watch cycling have no idea or easily forget the skill and danger and mostly, the experience needed to ride safely in a peleton which is often akin to a flock of birds or school of fish with certain differences. Firstly, they still have individual goals, secondly they are far more limited in space by size and direction of their path, thirdly they have far more unforeseen obstacles, spectators, signs, road damage, holes, etc, fourthly, they have a machine attached which they have to control perfectly and also, speed and trajectory changes can be more sudden, especially during an incident/crash leading to a cascading of unpredictable events. Regarding the speeds at which the peleton advances (generally 35-70km/h), it is comparable to cars in traffic. Can you imagine cars moving in such unison with so little space between each other (my wife gets nervous if I’m 2 bike lengths behind a car and can’t fathom my explanation that from cycling I have an in-built reaction mechanism to be fully focused for all eventualities from the many hours spent at mere cm from the preceding rider who could brake hard at any moment for any reason I may not have noticed before him. Someone might now point out car racing takes place at far higher speeds, yes but there are huge differences, firstly, they usually only have one or two competitors at the time to focus on (and in rallye driving, none at all), secondly the roads are far wider, more perfect and without obstacles, thirdly, they are still very protected in a box and in case of an incident, trajectories and impacts are far easier and safer to predict due to momentum so all in all they can drive in a way that looks far riskier when it actually isn’t and they can focus far more on themselves than everyone else. As you’ve said, you are not going to change safety by any of the simplistic suggestions being thrown around, the reasons lie deep and are unlikely to disappear. It may be better to try to look at ways to promote less peleton. I have some interesting, nasty, revolutionary ideas, they could even make cycling a more enjoyable, exciting sport to watch, but it’s unlikely any will be acceptable, change is slow and incremental, even mobile phones took a generation to overcome resistance.Mistermaumau13-01-2025
- Must be cool to be coach to an autonomous athlete ;-)Mistermaumau13-01-2025