"Already looking forward to hit the trails again soon!" Mathieu van der Poel's spirit not broken after failed MTB return

Mathieu van der Poel's first mountain bike start in two years was the big crowd-drawer of the World Cup in Nove Mesto. The Dutchman himself approached the race with big expectations too - after all he aims for the rainbow stripes later this summer in the discipline!

However that debut went quickly off the rails as Van der Poel crashed early on in the race. And not once, but twice. Despite his best efforts later on, Van der Poel had hard time coming back into the race and half way through, he pulled out from a position deep within the field and with pain in his wrist. No happy ending for now.

But as is evident from his latest Instagram post, the seven-time cyclocross champion's spirit cannot be broken that easily. He writes: "Had such a blast being back on the mountain bike last week! Things didn’t quite go as planned, but hey - life would be boring if everything went perfectly, right? Already looking forward to hit the trails again soon!"

The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider was brought to hospital for checks after the race and a wrist fracture has been revealed. But legs are fine. To prove that, the Dutchman has been already back in training on Tuesday, albeit only inside until his injury heals and he regains full control of his bicycle.

Van der Poel has only thing on his mind at the moment. Is it the Tour de France? No. He already eyes the first opportunity to bounce back from the failure and retake his rightful spot among the mountain bike elites!