{"id":853786,"date":"2026-08-11T05:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/853786\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T05:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:06:16","slug":"mathieu-van-der-poel-targets-mountain-bikes-and-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/853786\/","title":{"rendered":"Mathieu van der Poel targets mountain bikes and Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mathieu van der Poel just pulled off possibly the most sensational win, ever, at one of the cyclings most iconic finish lines. The Dutchman absolutely emptied himself to not only drop world champion and Tour winner Tadej Poga\u010dar but also to hold off the hard-charging peloton, solo, and win on Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es. It was thrilling stuff. More than a Tour de France stage win, it was a moment van der Poel admitted he\u2019d dreamt of for 12 months since missing out last year.<\/p>\n

So, how does van der Poel follow that up?<\/p>\n

Chasing rainbows: Dreams in dirt<\/p>\n

Well, he\u2019s already switched gears. Or, er, switched bikes. The Alpecin-Premier Tech racer\u2019s been spotted on his usual training grounds around Livigno, but now on Canyon\u2019s Lux World Cup cross country race bike. Not for fun or a break from the road, but because world championships are coming up in just a few weeks time.<\/p>\n

Because the one other race that van der Poel has dreamt of, and told us press nerds he\u2019s still dreaming of, is the mountain bike world championships. Well, worlds and Olympic gold in cross country mountain biking. But only one of those is on the schedule this year. And, with MvdP\u2019s checkered results at XC worlds in the past, some kind of result this year is probably key to the Dutchman being able to seriously focus on his Olympic goals in L.A. in two years time.<\/p>\n

XC worlds is the last remaining rainbow in a trio of worlds titles that he\u2019s stated he\u2019d like to win in his career. Cyclocross is well taken care of, several times. He\u2019s also won road worlds in a dramatic race in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the Tour, the full focus goes to mountain biking. I\u2019ll then have about a month to prepare myself for the World Championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van der Poel\u2019s talked about mountain bikes before in the past. After a few years of racing several World Cups, the last few seasons he\u2019s seems to talk about riding mountain bikes more than actually riding them. For those of us that have been waiting, patiently or impatiently, for the Dutch racer to make a proper return to dirt (not mud), it\u2019s exciting to see him putting in a proper few weeks of preparation ahead of 2026 world championships in Val di Sole, Italy.<\/p>\n

That should include one chance to actually line up for a race. The World Cup resumes from its summer break with a downhill and cross country round in Les Gets mid-August before worlds kick off in Val di Sole. Mathieu van der Poel will fight for the rainbow bands on August 30.<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/a>Tadej Pogacar, here with teammate Brandon McNulty during the 2025 Grands Prix Cyclistes de Qu\u00e9bec et de Montr\u00e9al, will be waiting for van der Poel in Montr\u00e9al. Image: James Bunga
\nChasing rainbows Pt. 2: From mountain bikes to Montreal<\/p>\n

From Val di Sole, it\u2019s a quick switch between bikes and continents for van der Poel. His plans are, reportedly, to hit the GP Qu\u00e9bec and GP de Montr\u00e9al before 2026 world championships in Montr\u00e9al at the end of September.<\/p>\n

That would give him slightly less than a month to switch from mountain bikes back to more familiar ground on the dirt.<\/p>\n

If he can manage to win both, which would be a spectacular accomplishment, van der Poel would come close to matching a few similar feats by Pauline Ferrand-Prevot. The French woman won four world championship titles in three months back in 2023 (and, within a year, had added an Olympic gold). A decade earlier, PFP became the only rider to hold three major world titles, cyclocross, road and mountain bike, within a 12-month span.<\/p>\n

But winning road and mountain bike worlds within a month? That would be quite the feat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mathieu van der Poel just pulled off possibly the most sensational win, ever, at one of the cyclings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[269868,296920,88781,49,48,635,13633,183316,1700,62722,82],"class_list":["post-853786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-grand-prix-cycliste-de-montreal","tag-2026-uci-mountain-bike-world-championships","tag-2026-uci-road-world-championships","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-montreal-world-championships","tag-mtb-features","tag-mtb-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853786","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=853786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}