Mathieu van der Poel will not be making a surprise return to mountain biking this weekend after all, despite being uneviled as a competitor for the Nové Město round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.
On Tuesday, the UCI Mountain Bike World Series social media accounts announced the multi-discipline star as having "entered to race in Nové Město on Sunday". A follow-up post compared his stats with those of Tom Pidcock, billing the XC race as a "clash of the road titans".
However, that will not be happening. Van der Poel's Alpecin-Premier Tech team confirmed to Cyclingnews that their star rider will not in fact be racing on his mountain bike in the Czech Republic this weekend.
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He was considering doing so. He was in fact entered onto the provisional start list several weeks ago, because there was a "small possibility" he would compete, according to his team.
However, they stated that Van der Poel definitively decided on Tuesday that he would not race, with riders travelling to the Czech Republic on Wednesday, the Dutchman not among them.
On the same day, the event's organisation – a joint venture between the UCI and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports – published their social media posts announcing his presence.
It appears they had assumed, four days out from the event, that Van der Poel was still planning to race, without yet receiving final confirmation from Alpecin-Premier Tech.
The team have since informed the organisers of Van der Poel's absence. However, the social media posts announcing his presence are still live.
MVDP's MTB ambitions
Van der Poel has raced cross-country mountain bike throughout his career, and it remains a focus as the Dutchman looks to expand his collection of rainbow jerseys.
Already a world champion in road, gravel, and cyclo-cross (eight times), an MTB world title would cement Van der Poel's legacy as a multi-disciplinary star of the sport.
The MTB has not been as kind to Van der Poel as the road or cyclo-cross, in each of which he has established himself among the all-time greats. His bid for Olympic gold went up in smoke due to a dramatic crash at the Tokyo Games in 2021, and the World Championships have always eluded him – most recently last year, after his MTB campaign had kicked off with an early crash and abandon at Nové Město.
Van der Poel has always had to cram his mountain biking in around his summer and autumn commitments on the road, notably the Tour de France and the Road World Championships, which he won in 2023.
That road focus meant he skipped the MTB race at the Paris Olympics in 2024 but he's determined to target that gold medal at Los Angeles 2028, as well as trying to get his hands on the elusive rainbow jersey.
This year’s UCI Mountain Bike World Championships take place in late August in Val di Sole, Italy.
This would seem to represent an ideal opportunity for Van der Poel, who will race the Tour de France this summer, finishing on July 26. There is also plenty of room on the other side of the MTB World Championships, with the Road World Championships taking place in Canada on September 27.
The next stops on the UCI MTB World Series are in Austria (June 11-14) and Switzerland (June 19-21), but Van der Poel seems unlikely to race these, as he is currently tipped to race the Tour de Suisse (June 17-21) in preparation for the Tour de France. A pre-Suisse outing in Leogang is certainly possible, but the high-altitude, climb-heavy course would be an unusual choice for the Dutchman.
After the Tour, there is just one World Series round before Worlds, at the end of August in Les Gets, which could be his only chance to fit a race in before the World Championships.
