After a long break, Mathieu van der Poel returns straight to the podium in the Mountain Bike World Cup. His success in Les Gets shows what matters when switching disciplines.
Switching between road bike and mountain bike is an enormous challenge for the body and riding technique. How successfully this balancing act can be mastered was demonstrated by Mathieu van der Poel at the UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Les Gets. Although, according to a report by Cyclingnews, he had not contested a single mountain bike race all season and had been fully focused on the Tour de France until shortly before, he rode straight to second place in the cross-country race (XCO).
A decisive factor for success in mountain biking is the starting position. Van der Poel secured a starting spot on the second row for Sunday's main race with a tenth-place finish in the short track race. According to Cyclingnews, this starting position helped him enormously to be right up there at the front on the very first climb and to save valuable energy that would have been lost catching up from the back of the field. Van der Poel himself emphasised in the post-race interview how much easier it is when you can start directly from the first two rows.
In the race, the road pro showed tactical cleverness. He stayed in the leading group until the penultimate of eight laps before stepping up the pace himself. In the end, he only had to admit defeat to Adrien Boichis, who was able to carve out a decisive lead on the descents. Van der Poel crossed the finish line seven seconds behind and explained afterwards that he lacked the final punch for the victory at the end, but was very satisfied with his performance after the long mountain bike absence.
Even if you are not a pro, important lessons can be drawn from this comeback for your own training. When you switch between different cycling disciplines, your body needs adaptation time. Van der Poel took a short break after the Tour de France before training specifically again in Livigno. Furthermore, the duel on the descents of Les Gets shows that downhill riding technique is often race-decisive. Anyone who rides smoothly and safely on the descents saves energy and can claw back decisive seconds.
Your takeaway: Good pacing and clean riding technique on the descents are often more important than pure endurance on the straights.
This article was generated automatically with AI from the sources listed above and has not been editorially reviewed.