Mathieu van der Poel to start the MTB race at World Championships: "It's the most realistic chance to qualify for him"

Two days after the announcement of the Dutch men's and women's selection for the road race at the World Cycling Championships in Glasgow, the selections for the mountain bike race have also been published. With the men Mathieu van der Poel and Milan Vader selected.

"With the men, the challenge is to secure a starting place for the Olympic MTB competition at this World Championship. That is a difficult task, but the UCI has a place at the Games for the two countries best classified at this World Championship, which do not otherwise enforce a starting ticket for Paris 2024," says 47-year old coach Gerben De Knegt.

"We don't know in advance which place will result in that position and in any case we will only know later in this qualifying process whether we have such a starting place. But this is especially, for Van der Poel, the most realistic chance to qualify."

The disadvantage is that he has to start completely from the back without UCI points, so this will certainly be a challenge. Vader certainly won't be allowed to move forward easily either.