“We’ve seen this before" - Ex-pros debate if latest crash signals end of Mathieu van der Poel's MTB career

Mathieu van der Poel's highly anticipated return to mountain biking ended in disaster on Sunday afternoon at the Nové Mesto Mountain Bike World Cup race, as an early crash brought a premature end to his day.

Covering the race for Eurosport, ex-pro Thijs van Amerongen signalled his concerns that this could be the last time we see the Alpecin-Deceuninck leader on the mountain bike. “It’s questionable whether we’ll see him back on a mountain bike at all,” analysed the Dutchman on the live broadcast of the race. “This wasn’t a good test, and it’s not the first time. There’s a bit of a history here.”

“He simply can’t afford to take it lightly anymore. And if you look at his schedule… Next week there’s the World Cup in Leogang, but he won’t be able to take part in that. Then there’s the race in Val di Sole, but he’ll likely skip that too, as he’ll just be coming off the Critérium du Dauphiné," continued Van Amerongen. "After that, it’s time for the Tour de France, during which there’s also a World Cup round in Andorra – and he won’t be racing there either. That means he’ll only be able to compete in one World Cup race before the World Championships. The question is whether that’s enough for everything to fall into place. He’s not going to line up at the World Championships just to fight for eighth place.”

Michael Boogerd was also on Eurosport's team for the race, with he too raising doubts about Van der Poel's future in the discipline. “We’ve seen this before with Mathieu – that things don’t go as smoothly on the mountain bike as they do on the road," he explains. "It’s a shame. I was really looking forward to his first mountain bike race. He had made it a goal.”

“If he truly wants to become world champion, then he’s going to have to make different choices,” adds Van Amerongen in conclusion. “It’s just really difficult to take mountain biking seriously alongside everything else. You could call this an isolated incident, but this is already the third time.”