Miraculous save by Van der Poel: this fall could have cost him the start of the season

Mathieu van der Poel experienced a serious scare during a training session in Spain, although fortunately, it all ended up being just a fright. The world cyclocross champion lost control of his bike while launching a sprint and was almost thrown to the ground, right at the final stretch of his preparation to kick off the winter campaign.

Van der Poel narrowly avoids a fall that seemed certain

The incident occurred while Van der Poel was having a small "race" with his training partner Anatole Leboucher, a 23-year-old French cyclist who rides for the UC Cholet 49 club. It was Leboucher himself who shared the footage on Instagram, where it can be seen that the session had more tension than expected.

In the first attempt, Van der Poel's chain already gives a warning by suddenly jumping. Both decide to repeat the sprint, but this time the Dutchman applies too much power and seems to lose his pedal stroke and stability. After several meters of impossible corrections, he manages to avoid the fall in an almost miraculous way.

 

 

 

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The scare would have come at the worst possible moment: there are only seven days left for Van der Poel to return to competition. His cyclocross season kicks off next Sunday at the World Cup in Namur, where he will debut the rainbow jersey and look to start off on the right foot a calendar that, barring changes, will include twelve or thirteen races before the main goal: the World Championship in Hulst.