Van der Poel is also riding the World Mountain Bike Championship in Glasgow in view of the Olympic ticket | Cycling

Jun 05, 2023 at 5:52 PMUpdate: 7 hours ago

Mathieu van der Poel will participate in the Mountain Bike World Championships in Glasgow in August. The 28-year-old Dutchman would already be at the start of the World Championships on the road in the Scottish city, which is scheduled just before that.

Van der Poel wants to take a shot at qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris with his participation in the mountain bike World Championships. The road to get there is complicated, although a ticket can already be secured in Glasgow (see box at the bottom of this message).

“I’m doing the mountain biking World Cup without specific preparation. I’m still there. My form will be good because of the road race, maybe something good can happen,” said Van der Poel on Monday during a digital press moment from La Plagne. He is there on altitude training in preparation for the Tour de France.

“Whether I will ride more mountain bike races? In principle, I only do the World Cup. Maybe I’ll get a lot of points there for the Olympic qualification. If that doesn’t work out, we’ll see if I might ride other races.”

Van der Poel present at NK

On June 25, Mathieu van der Poel will drive the road race at the NK cycling in Sittard-Geleen. “It is a difficult race for me to win, because there are a few teams with twenty riders. Then it is difficult to race alone against such force majeure. But of course I will try to win, that is no secret “, he says. “I’ve also thought about the NK time trial, but I haven’t really talked about that with the team yet.”

Focus on Tour and Road World Championships

This season Van der Poel mainly focuses on the Tour and therefore the World Championship on the road. Due to his participation in the Tour, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider barely has time to train on the mountain bike.

“But Mathieu can certainly combine the two World Cups,” mountain bike national coach Gerben de Knegt recently told NU.nl. “He can score points for the Olympic ranking in Glasgow or earn a ticket for Paris through the back door. No extensive preparation is required for that.”

It will be Van der Poel’s first mountain bike appearance since his very disappointing race in Tokyo three years ago. The Dutch all-rounder fell there and did not finish.

The Mountain Bike World Championship is on Saturday, August 12. The battle for the road world title is six days earlier. So both games are in Glasgow.

This is how the Olympic qualification works in mountain biking

There is an Olympic ranking per country. Mountain bikers can score points in races between May 7, 2022 and May 26, 2024. The points of the top three riders per country are added together. The numbers one to eight on the Olympic ranking of May 28, 2024 will receive two starting places (per gender) in Paris. The countries that are in places nine to nineteen may send one mountain biker. The Netherlands is far from the top nineteen. There is another back door at the World Cup. The two best riders in the elite race and in the race for U23 from countries that have not yet qualified via the Olympic ranking earn an Olympic ticket. That means that a tenth or fifteenth place in Glasgow could just be enough.

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