Back from vacation, Mathieu van der Poel shares update: "Chances are the bike will stay in the shed for a while"

Van der Poel had a great time in America, as evident from his social media posts. “It was fun. We had a few sponsor visits planned at Whoop, Oakley, and Zwift, but aside from that, I was able to take a real vacation. It was what you might call an active vacation,” said the 30-year-old rider.

VDP was also ready for a vacation, he admits to HLN. “The pneumonia that forced me to give up in the Tour was worse than I first thought. I struggled with it for a long time afterward, partly because as a top athlete you want to start cycling again as soon as possible instead of taking extra rest,” he explains.

“That had an extra impact. I know my body pretty well by now, and I felt that it wasn't as resilient as it should be. I tried to make the best of it later on, hoping that it wouldn't be too bad, but that turned out not to be the case. I needed rest, both mentally and physically,” he summarizes.

He already showed on Instagram that he was suffering from Septemberitis. “There were few races for me in August and September, which is why I added the Renewi Tour, but otherwise I had a lot of trouble motivating myself. Normally, I always train a little more than I have to, but now it was the other way around. I didn't complete more training sessions than I did, and that's never a good sign for me.”

Van der Poel also had time to watch the World Championships in Rwanda, which he skipped, on TV. “I watched the World Championships, which worked out well with the time difference in America. When I woke up in the morning, there were still 130 kilometers to go to the finish line. That's when the final starts, and you really have to start watching, which turned out to be the case...”

“I watched it mainly with the realization that I had made the right choice not to participate and that my planning had been correct,” the Dutchman told HLN. “I think that as a rider, you shouldn't only ride a race or World Championship if there's a chance of winning—otherwise Pogacar could start almost anywhere on his own—but I think it was clear at the World Championships and also the European Championships that there were few or no chances for me. Especially when you see how hard the race was and how few riders finished.”

“Pogacar is really impressive, and it seems to come so easily to him. I've said it a few times before, the new Merckx may not be a good comparison, because his name is Pogacar, but for us it must feel a bit like the days when Eddy Merckx was racing,” says van der Poel. “On his terrain, Pogacar is currently doing whatever he wants.”

“It also motivates me to be there again next spring. If you can keep up with Tadej and beat him, you're close to winning these days. Next year will be no different,” says the winner of Paris-Roubaix. “The Tour of Flanders and Roubaix will remain a goal every season, regardless of whether I've won them multiple times or a record number of times.”

“Even though the recent Mountain Bike World Championships turned out to be a disappointment, that remains an ambition. I'm not going to give up mountain biking until I've achieved my goal, even though there's a good chance I'll never achieve that goal,” says Van der Poel. “It's a bit for the same reason that Tadej also competes in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix: to have a challenge. Mountain biking can also be combined well with the classics, which is less the case with the Tour.”

But first: the cyclo-cross winter. “I cycled once in America for a social event. That was a big disappointment. I also did a lap on my bike yesterday (Monday, ed.), but chances are the bike will stay in the shed for a while. I feel like I need some more rest,” he explains.

“An extra week of rest can't hurt, because once my cyclo-cross season starts, we'll be off again for a quick succession of cyclo-cross races and classics. It will all be back to normal soon. In terms of numbers, planning, and content, it will be a bit similar to last year, but first, a good training block in Spain,” concludes van der Poel.