World champ Van der Poel ruled out of Dublin UCI World Cup

Irish fans who were disappointed not to see Mathieu van der Poel at the UCI Cyclocross World Cup race in Dublin last winter will have to wait to see the double world champion as he has been ruled out of the World Cup return to the Irish capital next month.

The reigning cyclocross and road race world champion is opting to carefully plan his winter given the commitments that follow next year, including the classics, Tour de France and the Olympics, where the road race and MTB title race will be on the menu. He can ride both in Paris as they are four days apart.

With that in mind – especially the tightly packed Tour and Olympics schedule – Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is set to limit his cyclocross season to 10-15 races, up to a world title defence in the Czech Republic in February. That short campaign means he will not start racing cyclocross until December, which will be too late for the Dublin World Cup on November 26th.

“I’ll start my cyclocross season in late December. It’ll be the same as last year, with 10 to 15 races and the World Championships as the last goal,” he told told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Cyclocross is something I’ve done since I was a little kid.

“I think a classic on the road is very similar to a cyclocross race. The only difference is that you have to race five hours before. Now I manage to be pretty fresh at the end of long races. The process started a couple of years ago and now I think I’m at my best on the road as well.”

Having won his fifth cyclocross title last winter, Van der Poel is clearly now more concerned with continuing to take big wins on the road after a remarkable campaign this year. He won just six races on the road, though those victories included Milan-Sanremo, Paris Roubaix and the World Championships.

“I don’t really have any goals left in cyclocross, so my goals have switched to the road and this year I was very lucky,” he said. “I have a few dreams left and this year I won three of them in one season, so it’s been an incredible season for me. I really enjoyed it.

“My goals will be the same in the classics. It’ll be hard to win again but I want to try. I want to win a classic wearing the rainbow jersey.”