"Mathieu had doubts about how good he is on the mountain bike" - Dutch coach explains van der Poel's choice to skip Olympic MTB

After months of speculation, it was recently confirmed by Alpecin-Deceuninck that Mathieu van der Poel will not compete in the Mountain Bike at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. A blow for Dutch national coach Gerben De Knegt, although he can empathise.

Although for a long time van der Poel was considered a certainty, De Knegt admits he was beginning to have doubt already towards the early part of this year. “At the beginning of May I sounded the alarm because I wanted to know what was going on from Philippe Roodhooft and Mathieu themselves. We then had a discussion and I was positive that he still wanted to go mountain biking," the coach recalls in conversation with Wielerflits. "But if you put everything together, it is a difficult exercise. So I understand his doubts.”

With a busy summer of action planned for van der Poel including the Tour de France and the Olympic road race, it was decided that adding mountain bike to the Dutchman's calendar would just prove too much. “What you should not forget,” says De Knegt. “If you do the Tour de France, then nothing for two weeks and then the Olympic road race: that is a copy of the way he became world champion. That worked well. And I firmly believe in that too. If you push the MTB race in between, you have to do half the Tour or not at all. But I think the most important thing is that Mathieu had doubts about how good he is now on the mountain bike. Nobody knows that. The chance that it would come to nothing at the Games twice became increasingly clear.”

"I had a good talk with him about it. And imagine that he wins that Olympic road race, then his track record on the road is almost complete. Without wanting to be disrespectful, but perhaps that will make it easier for him to make the switch to mountain biking later in his career," De Knegt continues, confident that despite the fact van der Poel will be 33 by the time of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the chance for a mountain bike gold may still be there.

"He would like to fill the gap of mountain bike world champion on his record," De Knegt adds. "That might be possible next year. The course in Crans-Montana in Switzerland is really tailor-made. It would be great if he could compete for prizes again in the MTB within the next two years.”

“And quite honestly: who is going to beat him on that road course?" the coach concludes. "Recent years have also shown that if Mathieu makes a clear choice, he will never be far from his goal. But I would like to emphasize that I would think it would be a shame if we went to Paris without an elite man."