Cyclo-cross world champ to continue to mix things up until at least 2020
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Mathieu van der Poel in the lead(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Mathieu van der Poel wins the 2019 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Bogense(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mathieu van der Poel wins the 2019 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Bogense(Image credit: Getty Images)
Cyclo-cross world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) has said that he plans to continue combining cyclo-cross with road racing and mountain biking at least up until the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
"I will definitely continue to ride a full cyclo-cross programme for a few seasons yet, and will combine 'cross with the road and mountain biking until the Games, after which a discipline may fall away," Van der Poel said on sporza.be after winning the seventh and penultimate round of the Superprestige 'cross series in Hoogstraten, Belgium, on Sunday.
It was the Dutchman's 30th victory of the cyclo-cross season, which bodes well for the 24-year-old to win the eighth and final round of the Superprestige in Middelkerke, on Belgium's west coast, next weekend.
If Van der Poel can do that, he'll be the only rider to equal retired cyclo-cross star Sven Nys's record 'eight out of eight' wins during the 2006/07 Superprestige season.
"Now that I'm so close, I want to achieve that," said Van der Poel, who is the son of 1980s and '90s cyclo-cross and road star Adri van der Poel.
While the younger Van der Poel's greatest achievements have come in cyclo-cross – where he's twice been senior world champion, won the European championships and been the Dutch national champion for the past five seasons – on the road he's the current national champion and was second at the European road race championships last season, as well as winning the junior world road race title in 2013.
His achievements in mountain biking are perhaps less prolific, although Van der Poel is nevertheless the current Dutch national champion, and finished third at the world cross-country championships and second overall in the World Cup last season.
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