Mathieu van der Poel has confirmed that the World Championships in Canada was the final road racing event on his 2026 calendar, with only one sponsorship obligation left before he returns home to Europe and a break from competition.
Van der Poel captured a bronze medal at the hard-fought elite men World Championships road race, where he was on the attack with nearly 90 kilometres left to go. The Van der Poel-inspired move was eventually caught, but the rider from the Netherlands then returned to the thick of the action in the sprint behind solo winner Brandon McNulty (USA).
Van der Poel told Wielerflits after the Worlds that the rainbow jersey battle was where his road program ended for 2026.
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His 2026 road season has seen multiple successes come his way throughout the year, starting with a solo breakaway to victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Other highlights included a dramatic win at the E3 SaxoClassic and a stage of the Tour de France.
Despite showing excellent current form with a daylong 176-kilometre solo breakaway in a stage of the Tour de Luxembourg prior to being a key protagonist throughout the Worlds, Van der Poel has now opted to end his road season.
He also said that his participation in the upcoming cyclo-cross season, a speciality he has dominated for years, remains uncertain. One possible reason for missing out is that his partner Roxanne Bertels is due to give birth to their first child in January, just when racing in the speciality is at its height.
"This [The Worlds] was my last race. Now there is a visit to our sponsor Premier Tech, and then I’m going back home," he told Wielerflits on Sunday evening in Canada.
"The cyclo-cross season? I haven’t thought about that yet."
"Becoming a father for the first time is very special. We’ll see."
Last year Van der Poel's first cyclo-cross race was in Namur on December 14, after which he took an unbroken run of 13 victories, culminating in the World Championships on home soil in Hulst on February 1 this spring.
Van der Poel had already mentioned in the past that skipping his usual program of cyclo-cross, a sport where he is currently a record-breaking eight-time reigning World Champion, was a possibility on his racing program that he'd not ruled out. The reason he gave when discussing this was he'd miss out in order to concentrate his energy more fully on the Classics season that follows.
Over the years, Van der Poel has taken a string of victories in all the Spring Monuments barring Liège-Bastogne-Liège - considered by some to be too hilly for his skillset, although he once took third place in La Doyenne, back in 2024.
More importantly and regarding his main spring focus of the cobbled Classics, in the last couple of seasons Van der Poel has not been able to maintain a consistent upper hand against arch-rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and his last win in Flanders, for example, dates from 2024, when Pogačar was not present. Skipping cyclo-cross season potentially could allow him to raise his game against the Slovenian star.
Whilst it remains to be seen what Van der Poel will do in the winter, then, one thing is already clear; rather than continue into the autumn Classics, his road season for 2026 is now at an end.
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