Mathieu van der Poel has but to verify whether or not he’ll journey on the cyclocross circuit this winter with the reigning world champion insisting that he is not going to determine on his programme till after he returns from vacation.
The 29-year-old introduced the curtain down on his street season with a bronze medal on the Road World Championships in Zurich final week, and he then claimed the rainbow jersey on the Gravel World Championships in Leuven on Sunday.
Van der Poel has now claimed world titles in three disciplines – street, cyclocross and gravel – and he indicated afterwards that he may goal a mountain bike rainbow jersey in 2025. It is much less clear, nonetheless, if the Dutchman will journey a cyclocross programme this winter.
“Will I journey cyclocross? Maybe. If I knew, I might let you know,” Van der Poel stated, according to Wielerflits. “We nonetheless need to determine whether or not or not I’ll journey cyclocross this winter. I’m going on vacation first, then we are going to see.”
Since switching his main focus to the street, Van der Poel has began his cyclocross campaigns comparatively late, however he has nonetheless crammed a substantial variety of races into his schedule.
Last winter, Van der Poel solely began his cyclocross season in mid-December in Herentals, however he would journey a complete of 14 occasions. He received 13 of these occasions, culminating in a sixth cyclocross world title in Tabor.
Van der Poel lined out in 15 cyclocross races the earlier yr, successful seven, though his 2021-22 cyclocross marketing campaign had been restricted to only two races attributable to a again harm.
It can also be unclear if Wout van Aert will probably be match to race cyclocross this winter after he suffered a season-ending knee harm on the Vuelta a España final month. The Belgian had already raced a scaled-back cyclocross schedule final yr with an eye fixed to his street marketing campaign.
“Nothing’s sure but, and I’ll see how I really feel, it will be a bit loopy to speak about that now,” Van Aert stated final month when requested about his cyclocross plans for this winter.
“The solely drawback is that operating and leaping could possibly be a bit tough at first, however that is my goal.”