It\u2019s been a long year for Mathieu van der Poel.<\/p>\n
After months of racing at the highest level, van der Poel is taking a break. The Dutch star recently returned from a trip to Californa, where he combined light cycling with a lotta golf, but he\u2019s still not ready to dive back into structured training. (You may have caught clips on social media where he shocked local Angelenos when he popped into a group ride.)<\/p>\n
Post-MTB worlds<\/p>\n
The season ended for van der Poel shortly after the UCI MTB world championships in mid-September. The event had been a big goal for the multiple world champion. Having won rainbow jerseys in \u2018cross and road, the MTB title has long been one of his goals. Although he started off strong, he ultimately faded. Following that result, he pulled the plug on the season. No European champs, no gravel worlds. Doneso.
In the weeks leading up to the MTB Worlds, he admitted he struggled with \u201cSeptember itus,\u201d a late-season burnout that affects even the strongest riders mentally and physically.<\/p>\n
A tough late summer<\/p>\n
Van der Poel told Het Laatste Nieuws<\/a>: \u201cThe pneumonia that forced me to give up in the Tour de France was worse than first thought. I struggled with it for a long time afterwards, also because as a top athlete you want to start cycling again as soon as possible instead of getting extra rest.\u201d<\/p>\n This combination of illness and fatigue disrupted his usual training routine. \u201cNormally I always train a little more than I have to, now it was the other way around,\u201d he said. Even on holiday, his rides were limited\u2013he only went out on that group ride.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, he is taking a measured approach to the upcoming cyclocross season and early spring races. \u201cI\u2019m not really hungry for the bike yet, but that may also have to do with the lousy weather in Belgium,\u201d van der Poel said.<\/p>\n He still had a helluva year. That included wins at Paris-Roubaix and Milan\u2013San Remo, and a brilliant Tour de France stage victory. There was also an incredibly long breakaway<\/a> at the Tour that would even make Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s<\/a> knees buckle. Although he got caught in the final kilometre, it was still quite the show. No doubt cycling fans will see him racing soon\u2013he is currently tied with the all-time record for \u2018cross rainbow jerseys with seven. With a win in early 2026, he will make history, eclipsing the record he shares with Eric De Vlaeminck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a long year for Mathieu van der Poel. After months of racing at the highest level,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[98247,49,48,635,80956,13633,82,636],"class_list":["post-198815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2025-uci-mtb-worlds","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-cyclocross","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}