Mathieu van der Poel received his sixth cyclocross world title in Tabor however admitted it may very well be his final, as his highway racing takes priority and much more significance.
Van der Poel is now only one world title away from Erik De Vlaeminck’s document of seven world championship wins, however that appears of little significance to him.
“Other than the world title and the enjoyable, there’s not a lot left for me to realize in cyclocross. My focus is more and more shifting to the highway,” van der Poel defined in interviews after his victory in Tabor.
29-year-old van der Poel is now the undisputed king of elite males’s cyclocross however can’t determine on his future within the self-discipline alone. He leads the Alpecin-Deceuninck crew, which positive aspects a whole lot of publicity from his cyclocross success, and he additionally earns important begin charges.
Any remaining determination to overlook the 2024/2025 cyclocross season contains a lot of elements and impacts folks. It could additionally scale back the curiosity within the winter self-discipline.
“It’s a choice that I clearly can’t make alone. However we are going to focus on it inside the crew,” Van der Poel mentioned, explaining the most important purpose for any determination to hold up his cyclocross bike.
“Cross within the winter is one thing that takes a whole lot of vitality,” he mentioned. “If it seems that I can carry out even higher on the highway by skipping cyclo-cross, then I’ll try this.”
Van der Poel will quickly flip his consideration to the 2024 highway racing season, however a remaining determination on his future in cyclocross will take loads longer.
“We’ll know extra about my highway programme in two weeks, however not but about subsequent winter,” he laughed, deferring any expectations.
Van der Poel loved an ideal race in Tabor. He instantly hit the entrance and rode away from the sector to win by 37 seconds.
He accomplished a near-perfect cyclocross marketing campaign of 13 victories in 14 races. His solely defeat got here within the Benidorm World Cup after hitting a pole at velocity, and he needed to finish on a excessive.
“It could have been a disgrace to overlook out on the world title after such a season. However a race nonetheless must be run, and the highest favorite has usually not received,” he mentioned.
“However I had good legs. I feel I primarily rode very managed and by no means took many dangers. Stones had been thrown up in lots of locations, I attempted to take these sections as rigorously as attainable and pushed on the place I might.”
On the end line, Van der Poel climbed off his bike and pointed to his Canyon bike.
“That the bike did a great job, which is essential in a cyclocross,” he concluded.
