Mathieu van der Poel will skip Road World Championships
Dutch multi-disciplinary phenom Mathieu van der Poel confirmed this weekend that he will skip September's Road World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda as he instead prepares for a shot at the mountain bike world title.
Van der Poel will race on the road this week with his Alpecin-Deceuninck team at the Renewi Tour in his return to competition from pneumonia that forced him out of the Tour de France. He said he plans to follow the Renewi Tour, which ends on Sunday, with a trip to the next round of the Mountain Bike World Series in Les Gets, France (August 28-31).
Thymen Arensman, a double stage winner at this year's Tour, will instead get leadership of the Dutch elite men's team on what is expected to be a tough, hilly course. Van der Poel, a seven-time World Cyclocross Champion and the 2023 World Road Champion, will be aiming for a first mountain bike rainbow jersey and a reset from his disastrous first World Series round this year at Nové Město, Czechia, in May, where he dropped out after two early crashes left him with a broken wrist. The men's XCO at Mountain Bike World Championships is September 14 in Valais, Switzerland.
