Mathieu van der Poel to skip road World Championships to target mountain bike title

Mathieu van der Poel is to skip the 2025 Road World Championships in Rwanda to focus on targeting the mountain bike Worlds, it was revealed on Wednesday.

At an Alpecin-Deceuninck media day attended by Sporza, among others, the 2023 road world champion - and seven-time cyclo-cross world champion - announced that he would aim for rainbow glory in Valais, Switzerland, in September.

He will begin his road season at Tirreno-Adriatico, before targeting Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France later on the season.

"It will look a bit the same as last year. The focus is on the Belgian Classics, that's what I'm best at," Van der Poel said.

"It is an ideal moment to focus on mountain biking again and to make the world title a big goal after the Tour de France. The plan is to do a few World Cup races too if it's possible, I definitely want to do it. But that is only possible if it fits within my schedule.

"It's the last piece of the puzzle that I'm missing. I really want to win the mountain bike world title. And with the Worlds in Rwanda, it's ideal to focus only on mountain biking."

Van der Poel won the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow and this month won his record-equalling seventh 'cross world title in Lièvin, France, so a MTB rainbow jersey is the only thing missing from that collection.

"We will look at a race like Dwars door Vlaanderen later. It is also not certain yet that I will start in Gent-Wevelgem," Van der Poel said of his spring. "I would rather win the Tour of Flanders a fourth time than a first time in Wevelgem."

The Dutchman also briefly touched on potentially his biggest rival at Flanders, the reigning world champion Tadej Pogačar, who teased this week about his participation at Roubaix.

"I don't know what Tadej's plans are for Roubaix," he said. "If he has the form he had for Flanders last year, then he'll be a tough opponent but I'm not losing any sleep over it.

"You have to be 110 percent to beat him at Flanders. I had good legs, but he still dropped me on the Oude Kwaremont [in 2023, when Pogačar won]. But the more good riders at the start, the better, because then the race will fall into place."

Van der Poel had previously hinted that he could skip the Tour de France, but it is now confirmed that he will race this July, both for himself and to support Alpecin's sprinter, Jasper Philipsen.