Van der Poel will race the MTB Worlds , 6 days after the Road World Championships: "I will race without any training"

After his long-awaited victory in Paris Roubaix, Mathieu van der Poel has kept a low profile in keeping with his new philosophy of training more and racing less. But with the Tour de France approaching, the Dutchman wanted to explain what his goals will be in the coming months and confirmed that he will race the Road World Championships and a few days later the MTB World Championships.

Mathieu van der Poel will compete in the MTB World Championships only 6 days after the Road World Championships

We already knew that the Tour de France and the World Road Championships would be Van der Poel's next big goals this season and he had also anticipated a possible return to MTB in September, but he has just confirmed that the return to XCO will be directly on August 12th at the World Championships in Glasgow, just 6 days after having competed in the World Road Championships in the same city.

"I will race in the MTB World Championships without training. I'll be there anyway, so I'll try without pressure."

We remind you that this year is the first time that the UCI Cycling Super World Championships will be held in the city of Glasgow, an event that will last 11 days and where the rainbow jerseys of all cycling modalities will be disputed. The Road World Championships will be held on August 6th and the XCO Mountain Bike World Championships on August 12th (here you can check the full calendar).

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If Van der Poel finally takes the start, this will be the first time we see him racing mountain bike since the Tokyo Olympics where he suffered the famous crash that triggered the back problems he still has today. Something about which he also had a few words:

"I have to keep working on it. I'm in the gym two days a week now and that helps control the problem. I'm happy with how things are going now."

All this effort to get back on the mountain bike as soon as possible is because his big target for 2024, and almost his entire cycling career, is to try to win the Gold in MTB at the Paris Olympics. And to try to do that he first needs to get enough points for the Netherlands to have the necessary places.