"It takes away the euphoria of last Sunday" - Dutch coach confides Mathieu van der Poel was shook more mentally than physically after his MTB crash
Mountain Bike
What should have been a memorable day for national coach Gerben de Knegt and his mountain bike group Mathieu van de Poel, turned into a disappointment in Tweed Valley on Saturday. De Knegt saw his leader fall in the first three minutes of the World Championships race, which immediately ended the dream he had the night before.
De Knegt was very optimistic about Dutchman's chances before the race which quickly changed as after a good start, Van der Poel moved landed on his right side and immediately left the race. De Knegt immediately saw that it was not good as he confided to In de Leiderstrui.
Read also
“He had a good start, but then he was on the ground. That sucked for a while," said the national coach of the Dutch off-road team. "It hurt him a lot. I was a bit lower and I didn't see him coming through anymore, but luckily I wasn't so far away. So I was there fairly quickly," said De Knegt, who immediately said that the physical damage was relatively minor.
"Mathieu was in pain for a while, but it was mostly a shame. It's not good, it takes away the euphoria of last Sunday and the fun week here that followed," De Knegt remarked visibly disappointed. "We had hoped for a place between ten and fifteen, then he would have done very well."
Read also

Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- This wouldn't make sense, he is close to retirement and doesn't have a spare year to feel out a new team.awp10-11-2026
- I think some are making much ado about nothing. Even though Jonas is getting older, before his crash in the Tour, he looked like a solid 2nd all the way home. No one can really climb with Tadej until this year, Eric Mas showed himself which I think was a one off year for him and Paul Seixas has been able to be pretty close to him. Whatever stage race Jonas enters as long as Tadej is not there he is a favorite to win.awp10-11-2026
- Giro or not Giro, he won't win the Tour!MajorPayne10-11-2026
- Very true.awp10-11-2026
- Ciccone had a very strong end of season. Consistently attacking and livening up races. Hope he makes that last leap in progress and starts notching some significant wins. Great rider to watch.Occam10-11-2026
- Me too!!!!!Occam10-11-2026
- they can sign any 100 of top riders today but Pogi will win over Remco any time at the TDF unless something goes wrongabstractengineer10-11-2026
- the time for a GC rider to retire is when they cannot win stages, or have a significant level drop like from winner/podium into top 5/10 consistently. Roglic is still competitive and Froome raced even though he became pack fodder.abstractengineer10-11-2026
- He should be in a different team. It was detrimental. For them it does not matter if he does not develop. He should have gone to a team where they need him to succeed.abstractengineer10-11-2026
- Technically it is "strictly forbidden to deviate from the lane they selected when launching into the sprint and, in so doing, endangering others". But: 1. Marie did not endangered anyone. 2. Above rule 2.3.036 is a Road Cycling rule not CX. 3. In Cyclocross we have only not well defined "irregular sprint" without description what would that mean. But even if you use 2.3.036 for CX it is still wrongly applied rule.averagecyclist10-11-2026
Loading
Write a comment









