“The question now is how strong that World Championship dream is” – De Knegt intrigued about Mathieu van der Poel mountain bike ambitions

Mathieu van der Poel’s long awaited return to mountain biking ended in disaster on Sunday, with the Dutch superstar crashing out of the UCI World Cup round in Nové Město and later being diagnosed with a scaphoid fracture in his wrist. After just thirty minutes of racing (and two falls) van der Poel abandoned the race, leaving serious questions about the viability of his mountain bike ambitions this season.

The injury has naturally raised concern about his Tour de France participation, with the Grand Départ just over five weeks away. But early signs from doctors and his Alpecin-Deceuninck team suggest his road calendar remains intact, with modifications likely to training and equipment to reduce wrist impact. The real casualty, it seems, could be his dream of winning the mountain bike rainbow jersey in 2025.

“I can imagine that this will be a difficult story,” Dutch national coach Gerben de Knegt told Het Nieuwsblad in the aftermath of the crash. The timing of the injury, and the demands of van der Poel’s road programme, have thrown his off-road goals into doubt.

It’s not the first time van der Poel has suffered misfortune in the dirt. He crashed out of the 2023 Mountain Bike World Championships in Glasgow and famously hit the deck in Tokyo at the 2021 Olympics, where he had entered as a favourite. For a rider whose palmarès spans multiple disciplines and monuments, mountain biking remains the only discipline where he has consistently fallen short of his ambitions.

“I will contact Mathieu soon,” De Knegt said, “but I can imagine that he already feels that the World Championships in September will be a difficult story. Mathieu simply does not have much time for mountain biking. We should be happy that he wants to put time into it at all.”

Van der Poel’s programme is already among the busiest in the peloton. His spring classics campaign this year saw him win both Paris–Roubaix and Milano-Sanremo, and he is expected to play a central role for Alpecin-Deceuninck at the Tour de France in July, both as a potential stage winner and lead out man for Jasper Philipsen. Finding time for a dedicated mountain bike block between the Tour and World Championships, held in late August and September, is no easy task.

Van der Poel has already said he will not go to the road world championships this year, instead to prioritise the mountain bike race. But before he gets there, he will have three weeks of racing at the Tour de France of July.

There’s no doubt he will be in supreme shape for the mountain biking, but will he have enough time to prepare for the specific skillset needed for the race? We cannot underestimate just how different road racing and mountain biking are; two entirely different sports.

“But it is clear that he has to put more time into it if he really wants to do it,” De Knegt added. “That will be very difficult with his road program.”

There is still a narrow path forward. “Suppose he could focus on the mountain bike for a month or a month and a half, then a lot is possible,” the coach said. “The only question is whether that is possible in his program and whether he can decide for himself.”

Van der Poel’s goals have always stretched across disciplines, and few riders in history have achieved so much in so many arenas, from seven cyclocross world titles to eight monument wins, to his 2023 World Championship road title. But even for a generational talent, something has to give.

“The question now is how strong that World Cup dream actually is,” De Knegt concluded. “I'm curious about that too.”