Mathieu van der Poel: 'I have zero to no expectations' for Worlds mountain bike race

Following his triumph in the road race on Sunday, Mathieu van der Poel has said that he has "zero to no expectations" to take home another rainbow jersey on the mountain bike at the UCI World Championships.

The Dutchman soloed to a memorable victory at a gruelling 271km race in Glasgow to take his first world title on the road at the weekend and now turns his focus to the cross-country mountain bike event in Peebles on Saturday.

Van der Poel has won national and European titles on the mountain bike, as well as numerous events in the UCI World Cup over the years. However, he hasn't competed in the discipline since 2021 and so isn't putting any pressure on himself to score another big win or a medal this Worlds.

"I have zero to no expectations, to be honest, for the mountain bike race," Van der Poel told Zwift in an interview in Glasgow. "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, to be honest.

"I will see how it goes and if it goes well it's nice. If it doesn't go well it's not even a disappointment because I don't really expect anything. It's been a long time since I've been on the mountain bike.

"It's just that if everything goes well and luck is on my side, I have a chance to qualify for the Olympics and that's the main reason why we decided to give it a go. Anyway, I was here after the road so one more week in Scotland in this weather is not a punishment."

Van der Poel said he's aiming to enjoy himself in the race after succeeding in "maybe the biggest target of the year" at the road race, noting that he's "noticed how much I missed the mountain bike, just to ride some trails."

He also reflected on his road victory last weekend, which saw him solo away from a select lead group in Glasgow to win by 1:38 from eternal rival Wout van Aert – a crash on the way to the finish notwithstanding.

Van der Poel said that he wasn't taking any risks during his solo attack – at least not any more than he had on previous laps of the technical and hilly city centre circuit. But still, he went down on a wet corner, damaging a shoe, before remounting and racing on to glory.

"For me, it was also a super strange moment because all of a sudden, I was on the ground in the barriers," he said. "I knew it was not necessary to take any risks so I was not doing something else that I did the laps before. And still both wheels just started slipping away, and there was nothing I could do to hold it.

"Sometimes you can get [the BOA dial] back on the shoe but it was completely broken off and this was quite annoying. But the bigger problem was that the cleat underneath was halfway gone. It was really difficult to stay on my pedal because I only had basically one side that I could stick into the pedal. So, I had to stabilise my own leg as well, so this was the hardest part of it."

'Now we enter the circuit at 150km to go and they just start attacking from everywhere'

The road race course had come in for some criticism from riders ahead of the race, with Benoît Cosnefroy notably saying that "the person who designed this course has problems". In the end, the elite men suffered fewer crashes than the juniors had on the previous day, though Van der Poel did note a small criticism of the circuit.

"If you see the time gap and the faces of everybody crossing the finish line it was a really demanding course," he said. "But with good legs, it's nice, of course, because it was so hard, and it was quite an honest course as well. So, for me, it was not that bad.

"Of course, I like some technical stuff, but maybe there were a bit too much corners. It's quite OK, but if you have a puncture or some bad luck the race is over. On a day like that, it's quite hard to take but aside from the crash, I stayed out of trouble the whole day so that was quite a quite good.

"This was also an atypical course, I think. You know you had to be in front from the moment you entered the circuit because if you're outside the top 20 it was super hard to accelerate out of the corners every time. But that's the problem – it's like 200 guys want to do the same thing and it's not possible so it's always a big fight for positioning but that's part of cycling."

Van der Poel was also asked about the modern style of racing, which has shifted away from perhaps a more conservative, 'wait until close to the finish to attack' style to one which sees riders frequently kick off major moves far out from the line.

The Dutchman has been at the forefront of the shift in attitude in the peloton, and on Sunday, too, the attacks began almost as soon as the riders hit the circuits at 150km out. Van der Poel said that he's noticed the change, noting that fans and spectators enjoy how races are raced in the modern era.

"I remember back in the days when I watched the World Championships, the commentators said you have to wait until the last lap and put everything into one attack," he said. "Now when I started road cycling, I think I was one of the first guys to start attacking from far away which was maybe 60-70km to go back then and now we enter the circuit at 150km to go and they just start attacking from everywhere.

"It's super crazy how it evolved but for the spectators, I think it's really nice. I get a lot of messages from friends, family, people on social media. They say it's difficult to go to the toilet for the last 150km because they don't want to miss anything in the race.

"For us, it's super hard, of course, but it makes it fast as well and I like to just go all-out and race. But now everybody seems to do it and that makes it super hard, but also I think super fun to watch."