Dutch MTB team with Mathieu van der Poel and Puck Pieterse on route recon in Paris: "We are happy that we can spend a weekend at the scene"

National coach Gerben de Knegt will travel to Paris this week with Puck Pieterse, Anne Tauber, Anne Terpstra and Mathieu van der Poel for the Olympic mountain biking test event. The Dutch delegation in France will get an impression of the circumstances for 2024.

"The athletes would like to be able to estimate the difficulty of the climbs in advance and experience for themselves how technical certain passages are," De Knegt said via the KNWU communication channels. "This way you can get an impression of the extent to which the course suits your skills and whether you would like to refine certain skills in the run-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games."

"We are happy that we can spend a weekend - relatively close to home - looking at the progress of the process," said the selector. "And for the guidance to also estimate the logistics story. Because everything is set up as currently planned for the Games. The result is of secondary importance."

Van der Poel also participated in the mountain bike competition of the Olympic Games in 2021. At the time, the Dutchman fell after he overlooked the absence of a board. He recently participated in the Mountain Biking World Championships in Scotland, but a nasty crash in the first round was the culprit. Instead, youngster Tom Schellekens had already obtained an Olympic starting ticket for Netherlands the day before.