Mathieu van der Poel prepares for the cycling world championship... by playing golf in Scotland!!

Mathieu van der Poel managed to find some time to relax between his World Championships. On Friday, the Dutchman shared a photo from Scotland, where he was spotted at his favorite golf course near Loch Lomond. Van der Poel will compete as the Netherlands’ team leader at the World Championships in Canada in two weeks.

Just five days ago, he was still at the starting line of the Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy, but things didn’t go as expected. Starting from the fifth row, Van der Poel was unable to contend for a podium finish and ultimately finished just inside the top 30—which wasn’t why he had traveled to Italy.

Just a day after Val di Sole, he was already back on the golf course in Belgium— a place he has now traded for the Scottish greens. With the Road World Championships approaching, this might provide some new motivation: it was in that region that he became world road cycling champion in spectacular fashion in 2023, by leaving everyone in the dust on the city circuit in Glasgow.

In three weeks, Van der Poel will be the team leader for the Dutch squad at the start of the World Championships in Montreal, Canada. “With Mathieu, we obviously have someone who knows what it takes to become world champion, and we’re heading into this World Championship with that same ambition,” national team coach Koos Moerenhout said in a press release.

In the run-up to the Road World Championships, Van der Poel will race the Tour of Luxembourg. In doing so, he is following the same preparation plan he used in 2024, when that stage race set him up for a strong performance in Zurich. Van der Poel is, incidentally, choosing the Tour of Luxembourg over the Quebec and Montreal Grand Prix races, which are also taking place in Canada next week.