Mathieu van der Poel

Mathieu van der Poel was born in Kapellen on January 19, 1995, son of Adrie van der Poel and grandson of Raymond Poulidor.

Van der Poel’s pedigree first translated into underage success on the cyclocross circuit, though he also served notice of his ability on the road with gold in the junior road race at the 2013 World Championships in Florence.

In Tabor in 2015, Van der Poel claimed the first of his multiple elite cyclocross world titles. Together with his contemporary Wout van Aert of Belgium, he would dominate the cyclocross scene and it was only a matter of time before their rivalry extended to the road.

In his early years at senior level, Van der Poel raced sparingly but promisingly on the road, winning the Dutch title in 2018 and placing second in that year’s European Championships. The breakthrough came the following spring, when Van der Poel sampled the Classics for the first time and enjoyed immediate success by winning Dwars door Vlaanderen and then scoring a remarkable comeback victory at Amstel Gold Race.

In the pandemic-interrupted 2020 season, Van der Poel beat Van Aert in a two-up sprint to win a dramatic edition of the Tour of Flanders, and he claimed an astounding victory ahead of a deep field at the 2021 Strade Bianche.

The 2021 road campaign saw a remarkable Tour de France debut in which Van der Poel won stage 2 at Mur de Bretagne and spent six days in the yellow jersey. Despite a nagging back injury, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider added another Tour of Flanders and Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2022, when he also won the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia in Visegrad.

A rapid finisher, a solid time triallist and often overwhelming on punchy climbs, Van der Poel has also won medals in both the Mountain Bike and Gravel World Championships, taking the bronze medal in cross-ccountry MTB in 2018 and dominating gravel in Belgium for the gold in 2024. Few riders in the history of cycling have been as versatile.

Between 2023 and early 2025, he won three consecutive cyclocross world titles, bringing his total as an elite rider to a seven. On the road, 2023 was prolific for the Dutchman as he won Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the road world championship title.

In 2024, he made history by winning both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the same year for only the 13th time in history. His quest for an Olympic Games medal fell short, however, as he crashed out of the cross-country MTB event and finished 12 in the road race. But he was back on top a week later with the gravel championship at Worlds.

His seventh cyclocross world title in 2025 matched matched Eric De Vlaeminck's historic number of seven elite men's world titles.

Key Results - Road

2024

🥇 Paris-Roubiax

🥇 Tour of Flanders

🥇 E3 Saxo Classic

🥇 National championship, time trial

🥈 Gent-Wevelgem

🥉 Liège-Bastogne-Liège

2023

🥇 Milan-San Remo
🥇 Paris-Roubaix

🥇 World Championships road race

🥈 Tour of Flanders

🥈 E3 Saxo Classic

2022

🥇 Tour of Flanders

🥇 Dwars door Vlaanderen

🥇 One stage Giro d'Italia

🥇 GP de Wallonie

🥈 Two stages Giro d'Italia

🥉 One stage Giro d'Italia

🥉 Milan-San Remo

2021

🥇 Strade Bianche

🥇 One stage Tour de France

🥇 Two stages Tirreno-Adriatico

🥇 Two stages Tour de Suisse

🥈 Tour of Flanders

🥉 Points classification Tirreno-Adrriatico

🥉 E3 Saxo Classic

🥉 Paris-Roubaix

2020

🥇 Tour of Flanders

🥇 Dutch National Championship road race

🥈 De Brabantse Pijl

Key Results - Cyclocross

🥇 World Champion 2015, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025
🥇 European Champion 2017, 2018, 2019
🥇 Dutch National Champion 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 2020

Key Results - Mountain Bike

🥇 Dutch National Champion, 2018

🥇 European Champion, 2019

🥇 World Cup XCO Overall, 2018

Key Results - Gravel

🥇 UCI World Championships, Belgium, 2024

🥉 UCI World Championships, Italy, 2022