“You can’t just ride three days of cyclocross without consequences” – Mathieu van der Poel’s father weighs in on swirling CX retirement rumours

As speculation grows around how much longer Mathieu van der Poel will continue to commit fully to cyclocross winters, his father Adrie has offered a calm but revealing perspective on the physical and logistical demands that increasingly shape those decisions.

Speaking to In de Leiderstrui, Adrie van der Poel made clear that no definitive choice has been made, but acknowledged why the question keeps resurfacing as his son’s road ambitions expand.

“He has simply left the door open,” he explained, pointing to the difficulty of combining a deep road programme with an intense winter in the field.

“Maybe at some point he wants to ride all the way to Lombardy and then has to start building up again. That makes a cyclocross winter more difficult. This year, that was not a discussion.”

Those remarks arrive against the backdrop of another winter in which Van der Poel has once again looked untouchable whenever he starts, reinforcing both his dominance and the sense that cyclocross now sits at a crossroads in his long-term planning. While the results suggest total control, the conversations around him are increasingly shaped by calendar management rather than competitive motivation.

Adrie van der Poel’s comments focused less on trophies and more on the everyday reality behind repeated race days. “It’s more than a full day,” he said when describing a typical cyclocross outing. “Sometimes you already do an hour of warm up riding in the morning, then it’s showering and straight off to the cross. If he then wins and there is a control, it takes an hour and a half before we can leave.”

The cumulative effect, he suggested, is often underestimated. “They are simply very intensive days. In the evening, we are usually only back between seven and eight o’clock, and then you still have to go to the masseur. Add it all together. You can’t just ride three days of cyclocross without consequences.”

That perspective adds further context to the wider conversation already unfolding this winter, where rivals have openly admitted that Van der Poel is operating at a level they struggle to influence. While the focus externally has been on results and margins, inside the Van der Poel camp the discussion appears far more practical, centred on workload, recovery and long term balance.

Adrie also addressed the recurring question of whether a winter without cyclocross could unlock further gains on the road. “We don’t know if he can still improve without racing cyclocross. We simply don’t know that,” he said, before acknowledging that the comparison with other multi-discipline stars inevitably plays a role. “He said: ‘Tadej doesn’t race cyclocross either, and he still rides a strong spring.’”

Alongside performance considerations, Adrie pointed to the constant pressure that accompanies sustained success. “Everyone is always watching him. And the more you win, the closer the non-win becomes,” he noted, framing the mental load as another factor that cannot be ignored.

For now, there is no immediate decision looming. Adrie stressed that any shift in approach would be part of a broader planning cycle rather than a sudden break. “It’s fourteen days, a little under three weeks, and then he’ll be back in Spain,” he said, underlining how quickly the focus can turn back to road preparation.

In a winter where Van der Poel continues to dominate whenever he appears, his father’s words offer a reminder that the debate is not about motivation or ability, but about balance. The question is no longer whether he can keep winning in cyclocross, but how much of that intensity still fits into the wider arc of his career.