Van der Poel and Pidcock have an eye on LA 2028 at the World MTB Championships on Sunday: 'Secure two starting spots'

This weekend, the Mountain Bike World Championships will take place in Val di Sole, Italy. The goal of winning the race is clear for contenders like Tom Pidcock, Puck Pieterse, and Mathieu van der Poel. But Dutch national team coach Gerben de Knegt also explains that they also need to keep an eye on the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Starting in April of this year, the UCI will maintain a ranking that will ultimately help determine which countries will be allowed to participate in the 2028 Olympic Games and how many starting spots they will receive. There will be 36 starting spots for both men and women in Los Angeles.

To allocate most of those spots to the strongest countries, the UCI points of the top three riders from each country will be totaled over a two-year period (from April 27, 2026, through May 28, 2028). The top eight countries will receive two starting spots, and countries ranked ninth through nineteenth will receive one starting spot for LA.

Van der Poel competed in the Short Race at the World Cup in Les Gets last weekend for a clear reason. “Mainly to secure a better starting position for Sunday,” he admitted candidly while in France. By finishing tenth in the short race at Les Gets, he earned a spot on the second starting row for Sunday’s race.

This Thursday (Aug 27), Van der Poel will not be at the starting line for the World Championship Short Race in Val di Sole. “I won’t be competing in the Short Race at the World Championships because the rules are different, and I’ll have to start from the fifth row on Sunday anyway. That doesn’t make it any easier.”

So Van der Poel is fully focused on Sunday, but isn't counting his chickens just yet after Les Gets. "Last year I also had a good race there, and in Crans-Montana, the following week, I didn't do so well. As I said, the starting position is very important, and I’m in the fifth row again, so I’ll need a little luck.'

The Women's Elite Short Race World Championships begin Thursday at 5:45 p.m., followed by the men's race at 6:30 p.m. The races will be broadcast on HBO Max. Pieterse has won the World Cup Short Race in Val di Sole the past two years and is therefore considered one of the favorites.