The decision has been made: Mathieu van der Poel will definitively start the Cyclocross World Cup in Namur on Sunday, December 14. The world champion had initially left a question mark next to Namur in his original schedule, but that uncertainty is now gone. Van der Poel will begin his cyclocross season in just over a week.
"Van der Poel has deemed himself ready for the races after recent training sessions, removing the last uncertainty that remained in the previous week's provisional calendar," his team Alpecin-Deceuninck stated in a brief announcement.
Team manager Christoph Roodhooft spoke earlier today, during the presentation of the new sponsor Premier Tech, with positive words about Van der Poel’s upcoming cyclocross season. "He is in good shape. His training restart was tougher than usual, but his rest period was also longer. But now he’s really ready, he feels that the training is paying off and that he’s at a level where he’s ready to race again," said Roodhooft.
The world champion had placed question marks next to the World Cup rounds in Namur and Benidorm. First of all, he wanted to be certain that he was completely race-ready before starting his cyclocross campaign. Father Adrie van der Poel recently shared that his son has only just recovered from the aftereffects of a summer lung infection.
Moreover, MVDP is also racing with the road season in mind. Preparation for the spring classics must not be compromised by cyclocross, which means extra rest periods are being considered during the cross season. There is therefore a possibility he might still drop Benidorm from his program.
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