Mathieu van der Poel will not join the Dutch elite men's line-up in the 2025 Road World Championships, the national federation confirmed on Monday. The Netherlands will instead aim to see what 2025 Tour de France double stage winner Thymen Arensman can achieve in his place.
The Dutch men's lineup for the climbing-heavy World Championships in Rwanda will be headed by Arensman, a winner both in the Pyrenees and Alps this July, with veteran star and former Il Lombardia champion Bauke Mollema expected to be another key player for the team.
Last week the Dutch National Federation (KNWU) announced the elite women's line-up for September's Road Worlds, including some major favourites of the calibre of Demi Vollering, Marianne Vos and Anna van der Breggen.
In contrast, the men's team doesn't have a stand-out pre-race contender, sports director Koos Moerenhout said in a KNWU press release, but the Dutch will nonetheless retain serious options one of the most arduous World Championships courses in history.
"We don't have a clear favorite this year, like we did with Mathieu van der Poel," Moerenhout said, "[But] that gives us flexibility when approaching this race.
"Thymen Arensman has, of course, done some fantastic performances and he will certainly be a key player. But several other riders will also have the freedom to compete heading into the final."
The Dutch team also includes Sam Oomen, Vuelta a España and Tour de France stage winner Wout Poels , Frank van den Broek, and former Giro d'Italia mountains classification champion Koen Bouwman. Arensman will also take part in the time trial, set to take place on September 21.
"Our chances will mainly consist of trying to anticipate, reading the race, then getting in a breakaway. On the other hand, it will also be a real battle of attrition," Moerenhout said.
"Our riders have done the right preparation and have the right qualities, so I hope to see as many of them as possible in the final. And perhaps we can even pull off a surprise."
Van der Poel, the 2023 Road World Champion, will be heading to the Renewi Tour, which runs from Wednesday, August 20 to Sunday August 24. He has now added a mountain bike XCO World Cup in Les Gets on August 31 to his program for this summer.
He will then mostly likely attempt to win a world title at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships elite men's XCO race in Valais, Switzerland on September 14,. However, he told Nieuwsblad on Sunday at a criterium in Belgium that after catching pneumonia during the Tour and abandoning that race due to the knock-on effects, he is not yet certain of participating.
"It's basically on my schedule, but we first have to see how it goes in the Renewi Tour" - where he is a former winner, back in 2020 - "and the World Cup in Les Gets. The Renewi Tour is necessary for me to regain race rhythm for my mountain biking," Van der Poel, already a World Champion in the road, cyclocross and gravel specialities, told the Belgian newspaper.
"The plan for the future is to ride more mountain bike races, so I can get a good starting position at the World Championships. But it was just very difficult this time."
