Mathieu van der Poel VS Tom Pidcock retunes this coming Sunday as the pair confirm for Les Gets

Mathieu van der Poel will make his return to mountain biking this coming Sunday in Les Gets, France. His team, Alpecin-Premier Tech, and the organizers—the World Series— confirmed this on social media on Monday. The World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy, will follow one week later. Now we know that Tom Pidcock will also be lining up for the race too.

Van der Poel had already indicated during the Tour de France that he would turn his attention to mountain biking after the race. Last year, he also competed in Les Gets in the run-up to the World Championships: Van der Poel finished sixth there, only to ultimately place 29th one week later at the world championships in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

In 2026, after the Tour de France, Van der Poel traveled to Livigno for a training camp to prepare for his goals for the rest of the year. There—a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Livigno—he also made an attempt to scout the World Championship course in Val di Sole with some locals.

Incidentally, the choice of Les Gets as the next race is also a logical one, and not just because of the date: next year, the Mountain Bike World Championships will take place there as part of the “Super World Championships” in the Haute-Savoie region of France.

Van der Poel is also expected to compete in the World Cycling Championships in Montreal, Canada, in September. According to HLN , however, it is not yet certain that he will line up at the start there, even though his co-sponsor, Premier Tech, is a Canadian company.

That—and whether Van der Poel, for example, will race in Quebec and Montreal beforehand—will likely not be decided until after his mountain bike season, which begins this Sunday with the race in Les Gets in the lead-up to his main goal: the World Championships on August 30 in Val di Sole.

Pidcock had also made his intentions to ride the 2026 mountain bike world championships clear before the Tour de France. Unlike Van der Poel, Pidcock has raced some World Cup events this season all ready. He won the Nove Mesto round of the series at the end of May, showing his form on the bumpy terrain is still there.