As reported on his team’s website, Mathieu van der Poel is hoping to be selected to his National team for a chance to compete in the mountain bike race at the Rio Olympics this summer.
We saw van der Poel take the World title last year. Can he take the Olympic MTB gold this Summer? © Mike Albright/Cyclocross Magazine
The Netherlands may send two riders to the Olympic event. At this time no Dutch riders have been named or confirmed.
BKCP-Corendon says that after the final cyclocross race of the season, van der Poel will leave for Cyprus to compete in the first of three UCI mountain bike races.
“I for sure don’t have experience, but I can get it. And that’s now the plan,” explains van der Poel. Adding, “together with the team, we’re working on a racing plan so that I can collect the necessary UCI points to race Olympics.” Right now the plan also includes van der Poel racing MTB World Cup events.
Will we get to see van der Poel with a gold medal this Summer? We don’t doubt he has the skill set. Time will tell if he can make the transition after a long cyclocross season.
