Mathieu Van der Poel never ceases to amaze: this year he had left a minimum of space for the MTB World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, and here comes the confirmation. In fact, the Dutch phenomenon will participate in the MTB World Championships, after a 2023 season on the road.
The Dutchman reports that his main goal is the 2024 Olympics in Paris and the 2023 MTB world championship will be raced without too much pressure. We'll see.
GLASGOW COMPLETE SCHEDULE
This choice is dictated by the fact that Van der Poel, if he wants to compete in the MTB Olympics, cannot completely snub MTB on pain of not qualifying his nation (Holland) for the games, given that he does not have many valuable athletes in the men's field.
The ranking that decrees how many athletes to take to the Olympics is by nation: the points of the three best mountain bikers of each country are added up. 1st to 8th place countries are awarded 2 places. From 9th to 19th place is only one, for a total of 27 starting places. As host country, France will still get a starting berth, but will move up to number twenty in the Olympic results if the French finish in the top eight. Furthermore, the IOC reserves the right to grant a wild card: and, frankly speaking, the wild card would be all for Van der Poel's Holland, possibly but never say never.
At the moment, the Dutch are in 31st place, a long way from the XNUMXth place to get a slot. Milan Vader, one of the beacons in the past for Holland in MTB, It's not doing well after passing on the road and having a major accident last year.
The last way for Van der Poel, in case Holland does not fall in the first nations, is to try to get back among the 2 countries with the best placements in the World Cup elite/Under 23 that are not among the top 19 of the standings, so so as to get a place at the Olympics. The situation is thorny but for a talent like Van der Poel, as can be seen from the many "loopholes" in the regulation, it shouldn't be difficult to get on the starting grid.
