Dutch national coach can only guess whether van der Poel will ride this winter: 'Everyone’s always quick to offer an opinion'

Dutch national team coach Gerben de Knegt was a guest on Laurens ten Dam and Stefan Bolt’s Live Slow, Ride Fast podcast. The question came up there as well. “Well, I’ve talked to him about that many times in the past: ‘Mathieu, you can, in fact, just ride the World Championships as a stand alone race’” said the coach.

"Yes, that's not an option for him; he always wants to race more himself," De Knegt continues. "And I've sometimes thought: what about skipping a winter of cyclocross? Given that he's going to become a father around January, this would, of course, be the ideal winter to take a break."

"Anyway, I'm curious too... I’ve talked about it with Adrie [van der Poel’s father] a few times, but he doesn’t really know for sure either,” he continues. So for now, it remains to be seen (to the outside world) whether we’ll see the Dutchman in action this winter.

De Knegt especially appreciates that van der Poel carves out his own path. “He knows how to relax, and he combines those disciplines very well. And everyone’s always quick to offer an opinion when the Mountain Bike World Championships don’t go his way, but I think we should be very happy that someone of his caliber is even giving it a shot. He really has nothing to gain and everything to lose.”

"I think it's wonderful that he keeps doing that time and time again, while others are thinking, 'What on earth are you getting yourself into?' Well, that guy just enjoys it—let him do his thing," said De Knegt, who, of course, also talks to van der Poel about mountain biking. For example, focusing entirely on that discipline for a year would be good for his Olympic plans.

"I did talk to him briefly about it once, and he knows himself that it might be better to do things differently, but he simply has contractual obligations to the team, and he has to fulfill them. This year he really prepared very seriously, because you don’t just finish second in a World Cup in Les Gets by accident. That was really impressive.'