Van der Poel has finished ahead of Pidcock just once in XCO: a look back at all their clashes ahead of the Val di Sole World Championships

Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock will meet again this Sunday in an XCO race for the first time since the Olympic test in Paris held in September 2023. Two of the most versatile cyclists of their generation will once again find themselves on a mountain bike at the World Championship in Val di Sole, and although their encounters have been few, the history clearly favors the Briton.

Van der Poel and Pidcock reunite in MTB at the Val di Sole World Championship

Van der Poel arrives at the World Championship as one of the top candidates for the rainbow jersey after clearing up much of the doubts about his form last weekend in Les Gets. The Dutchman returned to XCO after almost a year without competing in the discipline and finished second, just seven seconds behind Adrien Boichis.

The Frenchman was the only one able to surpass Van der Poel in a race where the Dutchman rode with the best in the World Cup for practically the entire event and even contested the victory in the final lap. A performance that places him directly among the favorites for Val di Sole. 

RECOMENDADO

Koretzky clarifies his situation: he couldn’t race in Les Gets and hopes to return at Val di Sole

Van der Poel switches to MTB mode after the Tour: the World Cup in Les Gets and the World Championship in Val di Sole will be his next goals

New Garmin fēnix 9 from €999: larger screen, better maps, 57 days of battery life, and ready to go out without a phone

The new Wilier Urta Ultimate 2027 gets more travel, new kinematics and adjustable geometry: models and prices

Motion reinvents the XC fork: claims the world’s lightest and features a rear shock

Andorra could blow La Vuelta wide open: Pogačar faces his first big opportunity

But the World Championship setting will be different. To begin with, Van der Poel will have to face a significant comeback starting from the fifth row. In Les Gets, he was able to take advantage of the new UCI regulations to compete in the Short Track and his tenth position in the XCC allowed him to start from the second row on Sunday. In the World Championship, he will not have that advantage, as the XCO grid will not be reorganized based on the Short Track results. 

Van der Poel himself acknowledged after Les Gets the difficulty of competing in MTB against specialized riders throughout the season and stated that he would need some luck to win the World Championship.

In addition, there is a very broad list of favorites, with Adrien Boichis, Luca Martin, or Mathis Azzaro among the main names. And this time there will be another rival who was not in Les Gets: Tom Pidcock.

Pidcock already showed in Nové Město that he needs very little to win again

Pidcock has also not followed a conventional mountain bike season in 2026, but he has already shown that this does not necessarily pose a problem.

The Brit made his comeback this season at the World Cup in Nové Město and won the XCO race with authority. Two days earlier, he had staged a huge comeback in the Short Track, although Mathis Azzaro managed to beat him in the final meters.

His history also shows that he is capable of arriving at major events with little specific competition and performing immediately at the highest level. Pidcock has already been XCO world champion and has two Olympic gold medals in mountain biking.

Precisely for this reason, his presence significantly changes the scenario that Van der Poel encountered a few days ago in Les Gets. And it will not be the first time that both face off in MTB.

Albstadt 2021: first duel and Pidcock ahead

The first XCO confrontation between them came in May 2021 at the Albstadt World Cup. For Pidcock, it was his first year in the elite category, and he finished fifth with Van der Poel seventh. The World Cup was decided with a spectacular sprint victory by Victor Koretzky over Nino Schurter.

It was just the beginning of a series of confrontations that would continue just a week later in Nové Město.

Nové Město 2021: Van der Poel wins the XCC, but Pidcock responds in the XCO

Probably the most remembered confrontation between them on a mountain bike came in Nové Město in 2021.

First, they faced each other in the Short Track. Van der Poel and Pidcock arrived together at the final straight, and the Dutchman managed to prevail practically on the finish line. It was one of the images of that World Cup and Van der Poel's clearest victory over Pidcock in MTB.

But on Sunday, the situation changed completely.

Pidcock dominated the XCO in Nové Město and managed to break away solo to win decisively. Van der Poel finished second, so the Brit once again finished ahead in their second XCO confrontation. 

Tokyo 2021: gold for Pidcock and Van der Poel falls

The next meeting came at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Pidcock had a practically perfect race and was crowned Olympic XCO champion, achieving the first of the two Olympic gold medals he currently has in his collection.

For Van der Poel, the race ended in a completely different way. The Dutchman suffered a hard fall on the ramp jump during the first lap. Although he tried to continue, the consequences of the crash ultimately forced him to withdraw. 

Pidcock thus won the most important duel that both had contested up to that point.

World Championship 2023: Pidcock dons the rainbow jersey and Van der Poel falls again

It took two years to see them together in an XCO again. It was at the 2023 World Championship held in Glentress, as part of the great Super World of Glasgow. Van der Poel arrived after being crowned road world champion just a few days earlier, in a race where he had also suffered a fall before attacking solo for the title.

His attempt to achieve two rainbow jerseys in the same week lasted very little. Van der Poel went down in the early stages of the XCO and ended up withdrawing. Pidcock, on the other hand, staged a comeback from the fifth row and ended up attacking solo to become XCO world champion for the first time. Again, two completely opposite outcomes.

Paris 2023 Olympic Test: Van der Poel finishes ahead

Their last XCO confrontation so far came just a few weeks later, on September 24, 2023, during the Olympic test held at the Élan court circuit that will host the Paris 2024 Games.

That race had a very different context. Neither of them arrived with the intention of seeking a great result, and the main objective was to recognize and test the Olympic circuit.

Victor Koretzky took the victory ahead of Anton Cooper and Nino Schurter, while Van der Poel finished 28th and Pidcock 36th.

It was the only one of the five XCO races they have contested together since 2021 in which Van der Poel finished ranked ahead of Pidcock. Since that September 24, 2023, they have not shared the grid in an XCO race again.

The five XCO confrontations between Van der Poel and Pidcock

• Albstadt World Cup 2021: Pidcock 5th / Van der Poel 7th
• Nové Město World Cup 2021: Pidcock 1st / Van der Poel 2nd
• Tokyo Olympic Games 2021: Pidcock 1st / Van der Poel DNF
• 2023 World Championship: Pidcock 1st / Van der Poel DNF
• Paris 2023 Olympic Test: Van der Poel 28th / Pidcock 36th

The balance is currently clearly favorable to Pidcock. Englishman has finished ahead of Van der Poel in four of their five confrontations. And the only exception was precisely that last race in Paris, although neither of them fought for the front positions.

Outside of the XCO discipline, the most notable duel between them in Short Track remains that of Nové Město 2021, where Van der Poel beat Pidcock in the sprint.

Val di Sole will allow us to see if that trend continues.

Van der Poel arrives with the confidence of having finished second in Les Gets and with the certainty that he can compete head-to-head with the best specialists. Pidcock arrives with much fewer recent references, but his victory in Nové Město and, above all, his history in Championships and Olympic Games make it hard to think that he needs much more.

In addition, they will approach the days leading up to the race differently. Van der Poel is registered for the Short Track World Championship on Thursday, while Pidcock will skip the XCC and reserve all his options for the XCO on Sunday.

The complete program of the 2026 MTB World Championship in Val di Sole, with dates, times, and where to watch the races, can be found here.