Mathieu van der Poel has yet to confirm whether he will ride on the cyclocross circuit this winter with the reigning world champion insisting that he will not decide on his programme until after he returns from holiday.
The 29-year-old brought the curtain down on his road season with a bronze medal at the Road World Championships in Zurich last week, and he then claimed the rainbow jersey at the Gravel World Championships in Leuven on Sunday.
Van der Poel has now claimed world titles in three disciplines – road, cyclocross and gravel – and he indicated afterwards that he might target a mountain bike rainbow jersey in 2025. It is less clear, however, if the Dutchman will ride a cyclocross programme this winter.
"Will I ride cyclocross? Maybe. If I knew, I would tell you," Van der Poel said, according to Wielerflits. "We still have to decide whether or not I will ride cyclocross this winter. I am going on holiday first, then we will see."
Since switching his primary focus to the road, Van der Poel has started his cyclocross campaigns relatively late, but he has still crammed a considerable number of races into his schedule.
Last winter, Van der Poel only started his cyclocross season in mid-December in Herentals, but he would ride a total of 14 events. He won 13 of those events, culminating in a sixth cyclocross world title in Tabor.
Van der Poel lined out in 15 cyclocross races the previous year, winning seven, although his 2021-22 cyclocross campaign had been limited to just two races due to a back injury.
It is also unclear if Wout van Aert will be fit to race cyclocross this winter after he suffered a season-ending knee injury at the Vuelta a España last month. The Belgian had already raced a scaled-back cyclocross schedule last year with an eye to his road campaign.
"Nothing's certain yet, and I will see how I feel, it would be a bit crazy to talk about that now," Van Aert said last month when asked about his cyclocross plans for this winter.
"The only problem is that running and jumping could be a bit tricky at first, but that's my objective."
