"He doesn't listen to critics - he does what he wants" - Dutch MTB coach excited to have Mathieu van der Poel back

The big goal of the season for Mathieu van der Poel has not yet arrived. Although he has won Milano-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix and a stage in the Tour de France, the Alpecin-Deceuninck superstar has another race on his mind since the beginning of 2025. That race is the Mountain Bike World Championships.

Mathieu van der Poel dreams of completing his collection of rainbow jerseys this season. He already owns the road, cyclo-cross (7 times) and gravel jerseys, and wants to close the circle with a discipline where luck has been evading him so far this year.

His last few MTB races ended in disappointment, but Van der Poel is not giving up. The Dutchman is still dreaming of a mountain bike world title, still elusive, and is preparing for the World Championships in Crans-Montana, Switzerland in the coming weeks. National coach Gerben de Knegt is delighted and has been full of praise for that reason.

There were crashes for Mathieu van der Poel during the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, the Glasgow 2023 World Championships and the World Cup in Nove Mesto in the middle of this 2025, which led to his injury weeks before a Tour de France he could make it to (he also made it to the Criterium du Dauphiné).

"I think it's great that Mathieu is keen to prove that he's still a crack at mountain biking," national coach Gerben De Knegt explains in an interview with De Telegraaf. "He doesn't listen to everything that is said and written, but fortunately he does what he wants. He is becoming incredibly vulnerable, because if things go wrong again, the experts, who already think they are going wrong, are ready to write bad about him again."

The next few weeks will be entirely dedicated to mountain biking for Mathieu van der Poel. On Wednesday, he heads to Les Gets, where he will compete in the last World Cup before the World Championships.

There, De Knegt definitely sees opportunities for Van der Poel: "The start area of the World Championships circuit is ideal for Mathieu. There, the first 900 meters are mainly asphalt and are 300 meters wide. Very different from what happened in the Czech Republic, where Mathieu got stuck and crashed because he had to risk too much."

"During the World Championship, he could overtake twenty people from the start. Will it be enough to win? You never know beforehand, but Mathieu is capable of anything," he concluded.