Mathieu van der Poel will be focusing on his mountain biking in 2024 and still aims to perform greatly in the Paris Olympic Games. How far he'll go is a mystery, but the Dutch national team's coach assured that he is 'more than just a good mountain biker'.
"I find that really annoying to see. That was a really unpleasant moment, and I'll put it mildly. Yes, that was a real fucking moment and that should be clear. It overshadowed the good performance," team national coach Gerben de Knegt shared in the Cycloo Wielercafé podcast after seeing a picture of van der Poel crashing at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. There, he was unaware that in a drop, there were no boards for the riders who wanted to tackle the feature more slowly. Hence, without the speed, he went over his bars and suffered a hard crash, with the injuries he suffered being felt for months.
"If you start training and something goes wrong, there are planks to prevent you from falling. There are never boards at World Cup competitions and now there are, but that was now clearly communicated. So Mathieu knew now." However at the time he did not, and lost on a major opportunity. A very successful mountain biker in past years, he still believes in his potential in the discipline, despite not having had the best of luck in recent months when it came to racing in it.
He still looks to be part of the Olympic race and search a medal - an ever-growing difficult task, however he will have to put in a lot of preparation in the coming months. However de Knegt argues that he does not have much to prove, after having succeeded even in what is his 'third' discpline: "He has already won several World Cups and has been European champion, so he has already proven one hundred percent that he is a very good mountain biker. And to put it mildly, he is more than just a good mountain biker."
🇳🇱 Mathieu van der Poel and his CX participation. 🗣️ "One of the reasons I keep on racing CX is to get the record of 7 world titles. Besides that I don't have a lot of goals. I don't expect Pidcock or Van Aert at the start in Tabor (WC), but it doesn't change my prep." (Sporza)
