Van der Poel pulls out of the Short Track World Championships

Mathieu van der Poel seems that he will not finally compete in the Short Track World Championship taking place this Thursday in Val di Sole. The Dutchman had been listed among the provisional entries until now, and several official media associated with the World Championship had taken his participation for granted, but his name has disappeared from the latest update of the lists.

Van der Poel disappears from the XCC World Championship list a day before the race

Although neither Mathieu van der Poel nor the Dutch team had publicly confirmed that he would compete in the XCC, the CX world champion had been listed for days in the provisional lists of Val di Sole.

His presence was practically taken for granted. In fact, several of the official media associated with the World Championship had already announced that Van der Poel would be on the starting grid on Thursday, and we ourselves reported his registration when we explained that the new UCI regulation had allowed him to compete in the Short Track of Les Gets and that he was also listed for the XCC World Championship. 

However, this morning, upon reviewing the still provisional lists of the World Championship again, we have confirmed that Mathieu van der Poel no longer appears among the entries for the men's Short Track. In the coming hours, the final start list should be published, but at this point, his absence from the latest list suggests that he will not take the start.

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For now, the reason for this change has not been revealed. We do not know if Van der Poel and his team have decided to modify the program after what happened last weekend at the Les Gets World Cup or if the XCC World Championship was never definitively part of their plans despite initially being listed.

Racing the Short Track would not improve his grid position for the XCO World Championship

Van der Poel's situation in Val di Sole is also very different from what he experienced a few days ago in Les Gets.

The Dutchman has very few points in the UCI mountain bike ranking, which would have forced him to face the XCC World Championship from a very disadvantaged position. In Les Gets, he encountered a similar scenario, although there the new regulation introduced this season allowed him to access the Short Track due to his position in the UCI rankings of other disciplines.

In that race, a good result in the XCC could indeed improve his starting position for the World Cup XCO. And that is exactly what happened. Van der Poel climbed from the last position to finish tenth, and that result placed him in the second row for the XCO on Sunday.

In the World Championship, the system is different. The result of the Short Track does not serve to reorganize the XCO grid, so Van der Poel would have had to face tomorrow's explosive race from very far back without gaining any benefit in his starting position for Sunday.

Whatever happens in the XCC, Van der Poel will start the XCO World Championship from the fifth row. He will be able to do so from that position thanks to the new UCI regulation and his privileged position in the road ranking, despite being very far behind in the specific mountain bike ranking. Van der Poel himself pointed out after Les Gets that this starting position will be one of his major problems in Val di Sole.

The Short Track of Les Gets demanded more from him than expected

There is also another factor that may help to understand the decision, although for now there is no confirmation that it is the reason for his withdrawal.

Van der Poel arrives in Val di Sole after completing two maximum intensity efforts in Les Gets. The first was precisely the Short Track on Friday, his first MTB race in almost a year.

His performance was spectacular. Starting from the last position, he overtook more than 20 riders during the first minutes and quickly reached the front group. He then suffered a scare in the rock garden, lost several positions, and climbed back to finish tenth, 36 seconds behind Adrien Boichis.

But his subsequent statements made it clear the cost of that effort. "It hurt a lot", he admitted right after finishing. Van der Poel explained that he expected a demanding race, but that he had suffered even more than anticipated due to a pace that practically offered no moments to recover during the approximately 23 minutes of competition. Here we recount how his return to MTB was in the Short Track of Les Gets.

Two days later, he demonstrated again that his level in mountain biking remains very high. This time, starting from the second row thanks to the result of the XCC, Van der Poel was among the best throughout the race and finished second in the XCO, just seven seconds behind Adrien Boichis. He even contested the victory until the last lap.

All for the XCO World Championship on Sunday

With the Short Track out of his program, everything now points to Van der Poel concentrating his efforts on the main objective of his trip to Val di Sole: the XCO World Championship on Sunday.

There, he will have to solve from the start the problem of starting from the fifth row, something he himself considers decisive. In Les Gets, he acknowledged the huge difference it made to start from the front positions and, speaking already about the World Championship, admitted that starting so far back will require even a bit of luck to quickly get into the fight.

Moreover, the scenario will be even more demanding than the one he encountered last weekend. Names like Adrien Boichis, Luca Martin, Mathis Azzaro, and the rest of the usual World Cup specialists will be joined by Tom Pidcock, who will also not compete in the Short Track and will go directly to the XCO.

This will also be the first confrontation between the two in an XCO race since the Olympic test in Paris in September 2023. So far, they have met five times in XCO, and the balance clearly favors the Briton: Pidcock finished ahead in four of them, while Van der Poel only did so in that Olympic test. Here we review all the MTB encounters between Van der Poel and Pidcock before the World Championship.