Take3 weeks ago
Van der Poel is not returning to mountain biking — he's making a calculated lunge at the one rainbow jersey he doesn't own, using Les Gets as a single warm-up lap before Val di Sole. «It will never be ideal,» he said himself, and that's the honest framing: this is a gap, not a homecoming.
Van der Poel hasn't touched an MTB since crashing and fracturing his scaphoid at Nové Město in May 2025 — a gap of well over a year — and his last Worlds result was 29th. The field at Val di Sole includes two-time defending champion Alan Hatherly, 2026 World Cup leader Luca Martin, and Tom Pidcock. One World Cup race in Les Gets (August 20-23) is what separates that rust from a race-day start at the XCO final on August 30. The engine is there — two stage wins at the 2026 Tour de France confirm that — but MTB-specific recency is a real variable, not a formality.
Sources
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