Van der Poel changes his plans after the XCO World Championships: he will race the Tour de Luxembourg before travelling to Canada

Mathieu van der Poel has introduced an unexpected novelty in his preparation for the Road World Championship. The Dutchman will be at the start of the Škoda Tour de Luxembourg 2026, which will take place from September 16 to 20, just a week before fighting for the rainbow jersey in Montreal.

Van der Poel adds the Tour of Luxembourg to his path towards the World Championship

The organization of the Tour of Luxembourg confirmed this Wednesday the participation of Mathieu van der Poel, who will thus return to a race he successfully competed in back in 2024.

The news is particularly interesting because until now, everything pointed to the fact that, once his mountain bike block was finished, Van der Poel would focus directly on his preparation in Canada.

In fact, during his altitude training camp in Livigno, we had already seen Van der Poel training alongside Remco Evenepoel in what the Belgian titled as "Project Canada". At that time, the Dutchman was still preparing his MTB goals, but the Road World Championship in Montreal was already appearing as the main objective for September. Now we know there will be an intermediate stop.

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Van der Poel will compete in the five stages of the Tour of Luxembourg from September 16 to 20. The Road World Championship will take place just a week later, on Sunday, September 27, in Montreal.

The decision comes after the unexpected result he obtained at the XCO World Championship in Val di Sole.

Van der Poel had finished second in the World Cup in Les Gets just seven days prior and arrived at the World Championship with real chances to compete at the front. However, he finished 30th and later admitted that he couldn't find an explanation for his bad feelings. "Today I had no power in my legs. It just wasn't going well," he explained after the race.

There is no confirmation that this result directly caused the change in schedule, but the inclusion of the Tour of Luxembourg will allow Van der Poel to compete again on the road bike before the World Championship. It will also be his first road race since the Tour de France.

Luxembourg has worked for him before a World Championship

The choice is not completely new for Van der Poel. In 2024, he used the Tour of Luxembourg as one of his last races before the World Championship in Zurich.

He won the first stage, took the points classification, and finished second overall behind Antonio Tiberi. A week later, he secured the bronze medal at the Road World Championship, behind Tadej Pogačar and Ben O'Connor. Two years later, he will repeat a similar preparation.