Take2 weeks ago
Van der Poel clawed from 41st to 10th at Les Gets XCC, but the 36-second gap to Adrien Boichis tells the honest story: he's back in the race, not yet at the front of it, with eight days to close that distance before Val di Sole.
Starting 41st after a mechanical setup penalty, van der Poel recovered through a near-crash in the rock garden and was running his fastest lap of the race at the finish — the trajectory is right, the deficit is real. Boichis crossed in 22:32 with Luca Martin second; van der Poel, in his first XCC World Cup since 2021, was more than half a minute back. The 10th place does buy him a second-row grid start for Sunday's XCO, a meaningful strategic gain. «It hurt a lot» was his own read — which is either an honest fitness admission or a deliberate understatement before Val di Sole.
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