Mathieu van der Poel switches to mountain bike two weeks after Tour de France victory in Paris

It has now been two weeks since Mathieu van der Poel won the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées in spectacular fashion. The Dutch Alpecin-Premier Tech rider understandably took some time to enjoy his success in Paris, but he has already turned his attention to his next major targets.

After 'Paris', Van der Poel returned to Belgium, where — as you would expect from someone who simply loves riding his bike — he was soon spotted back on his familiar training roads. The versatile Dutchman has now traveled to Italy, where he is completing a training camp in Livigno.

Van der Poel, who also enjoys travelling to Livigno to ski during the winter, is training there on his mountain bike. After the Tour de France, his next major objective is the Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy, with the elite men's cross-country race taking place on Sunday, August 30.

The Dutchman has held the ambition of becoming mountain bike world champion for several years, but has yet to achieve that goal. Last year, Van der Poel finished 29th at the World Championships in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

Van der Poel is certainly not one to give up, and he is now back training on his mountain bike, complete with the European champion's stripes he earned earlier in his career. During the Tour de France, he again underlined his determination to target the MTB World Championships, where he will face Tom Pidcock, among others.

“After the Tour, the full focus goes to mountain biking. I’ll then have about a month to prepare myself for the World Championships. Normally, I’ll do one more World Cup race, just like last year in Les Gets (on August 23, ed.), and then it’s on to the World Championships,” said the Dutchman. After that, Van der Poel will switch bikes once again, with the Road World Championships in Montreal, Canada also on his programme.

He could potentially return to road racing as early as the weekend of September 11 and 13 at the GP de Québec and GP de Montréal. Premier Tech, a sponsor of the Alpecin-Premier Tech team, is based in that part of Canada and would naturally be keen to have the team's biggest star on the start line.