Van der Poel and Evenepoel train together for their "Project Canada"

Mathieu van der Poel has been concentrating in Livigno for at least a week now, training with his mountain bike to face an intense end of August with two significant events ahead. First, all signs point to his return at the World Cup in Les Gets, and just a week later, the XCO World Championship in Val di Sole, his true objective, will take place.

But in the midst of preparing for his return to MTB, Van der Poel has found one of the cyclists he will meet again a few weeks later and on a road bike in Livigno. Remco Evenepoel is also training in the Italian town, and both have taken advantage of the coincidence to share some kilometers. The Belgian has titled his activity on Strava as «Project Canada».

Van der Poel prepares for the MTB World Championship while sharing Evenepoel's «Project Canada»

The paths of Van der Poel and Evenepoel will be very different in the coming weeks, but they will ultimately lead them to the same place. Before definitively thinking about Canada, the Dutchman is completely focused on mountain biking.

Van der Poel has been training in Livigno with his MTB for at least a week, and his first stop should be the World Cup in Les Gets, which takes place from August 20 to 23. His participation has not yet been officially announced, although all signs indicate that he will be there and will use the French event as a final rehearsal before tackling the major objective of this block.

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This will take place just a week later in Val di Sole. The MTB World Championship takes place from August 26 to 30, and Van der Poel will arrive with the difficult mission of trying to conquer one of the few major titles still missing from his palmarès.

The high-altitude training in Livigno is part of that preparation, and it is there that the meeting with Evenepoel has occurred.

On his part, Evenepoel comes from a very different part of the season. After finishing second in the Tour de France and subsequently winning the Clásica de San Sebastián, he has begun to prepare for the objectives that await him in the last part of the year. And all point to Canada, where he is expected to compete in the GP of Quebec and Montreal before the road World Championship.

Evenepoel posted a photograph of both during a joint outing on Strava and titled the activity «Project Canada». A simple way to summarize the goal they share for September.

From training together in Livigno to fighting for the World Championship in Montreal

Once the MTB World Championship in Val di Sole concludes, Van der Poel will have almost a month to switch gears and prepare for his return to the road. The final destination of that transition will be Montreal, where the Road World Championships will be held from September 20 to 27.

Evenepoel has not yet made his upcoming calendar public, but it seems that the Canadian events will be his next races before the World Championship, which will also take place there.

In Livigno, everything seems cordial, but on September 27, in Montreal, they will stop being training partners and will compete for the rainbow jersey.