{"id":198626,"date":"2025-05-26T09:13:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T09:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=198626"},"modified":"2025-05-26T10:21:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T10:21:03","slug":"van-der-poel-mtb-world-championship-quest-begins-with-a-crash-out-and-perhaps-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/05\/26\/van-der-poel-mtb-world-championship-quest-begins-with-a-crash-out-and-perhaps-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"Van der Poel MTB World Championship Quest Begins with a Crash-Out \u2013 and Perhaps Worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mathieu van der Poel\u2019s quest for the mountain bike world championship began in Sunday\u2019s Nov\u00e9\u00a0M\u011bsto\u00a0Na\u00a0Morav\u011b UCI World Series race with an absolute nightmare. He crashed twice on the start loop of the Elite Men\u2019s race and eventually abandoned the race on the third of eight laps.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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But the bad news didn\u2019t stop there. Wielerflits<\/em> reported<\/a> that both van der Poel and Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Sam Gaze, who also abandoned the race after crashing, were taken to the hospital to be examined. Another report by Sporza<\/em><\/a>, yet to be confirmed, suggested that the reigning cyclocross and gravel world champion might be forced to give up plans to ride in the upcoming Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Sporza<\/em> went on to say that van der Poel had been scheduled to travel to La Plagne on Monday for an altitude training camp in preparation for \u00a0the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9<\/a>, which starts on \u00a0June 8, and the Tour, which kicks off on July 5. \u201cThere is now a very big question mark behind that planning,\u201d the publication reported, without however providing concrete details.<\/p>\n

Van der Poel\u2019s problems in the race began with his place on the start grid. Not having ridden an MTB race in four years, he had to start far back on the 32nd spot, about eight rows from the front, which forced him to ride in catch-up mode. Two minutes into the start loop, at the foot of a climb, he tried to pass a rider on the outside by leaning into him, but the rider resisted and van der Poel crashed into the side netting.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by UCI Mountain Bike (@uci_mountainbike)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n