Mathieu van der Poel's bid for a third world title this year after winning last weekend's elite men's road race ended abruptly before the start of the first full lap of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships elite men's cross country Olympic (XCO) race in Glentress Forest.
After moving up from his fifth-row start, Van der Poel was sitting in a promising position when he slid out in the dusty right-hand turn before the start-finish straight at the end of the starting lap. He fell on the same side as in the road race.
"My front wheel slipped on a relatively easy part of the track. It's my own fault. I can't say much about it either, other than being angry with myself," the Dutch rider told NOS after the race. "It's just a shame for now that I had such a nice period on the bike ends so stupidly."
Part of the reason Van der Poel planned to line up was the hope of qualifying Netherlands for a spot at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, as only the top 19 nations in the UCI rankings will be included in the 34 athlete positions for the cross-country men's and women's races. The Netherlands is in 24th place, 2909 points adrift from Switzerland in the current UCI rankings.
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Fortunately for the Netherlands, the nation's Olympic hopes were kept on track by Tom Schellekens after he finished fifth in the U23 race, where a spot was also up for grabs for nations that have not qualified via the ranking system. Schellekens was the first rider over the line from a nation outside the rankings qualification zone.
"I have to thank Tom for that, because if it had been up to me it wouldn't have worked out," Van der Poel said in the NOS report.
Van der Poel said this week that he had "zero expectations" for the XCO event, according to an interview with Zwift. "I decided in La Plagne that I would give it a try, but in my head only the road race counted and my mind was only on the road race," Van der Poel said.
There were accusations of favouritism by the UCI before the race after a late decision to change the start grid rule which based the order on UCI ranking in the discipline and place Van der Poel in 34th position, ahead of even XCC world champion Sam Gaze (New Zealand).
Van der Poel started alongside fellow road pros Peter Sagan and Tom Pidcock and used the short opening lap to move himself up more than 20 positions but his luck quickly ran out when he began to slide, unclipped his right foot and caught it on the ground, sending him sliding out.
