Mathieu van der Poel Roars into Contention for MTB Worlds with Sensational Les Gets Comeback

Mathieu van der Poel very nearly stunned the specialists on Sunday in his first Olympic cross-country mountain bike race in 51 weeks.

Alpecin-Premier Tech’s all-terrain star finished a narrow second after he was gapped by Adrien Boichis in the final half-lap of the notorious Les Gets circuit on Sunday.

The specialist MTB racers might consider Van der Poel’s second-place finish Sunday a warning shot.

Van der Poel was using Sunday’s UCI World Cup race as a tune-up for next weekend’s MTB worlds in Val di Sole – and he just rode himself into the tier of favorites.

The multi-discipline star rode a near-faultless race Sunday in the high-altitude French course, turning a page on a largely disappointing dive into MTB in 2025.

Van der Poel blasted into the lead group of five before he and Bochis locked into a last-lap two-man thriller.

It was quite the turnaround for Van der Poel. It’s only been four weeks since he lit up the Tour de France with a two-up attack through Paris with Tadej Pogačar.

“Today was really nice to be in the front of an MTB race again,” Van der Poel said at the finish Sunday. “It’s been a while. I enjoyed it, I missed the last punch to win a little bit, but I’m happy with my performance.”

Van der Poel showed Sunday he’s got the skills to snatch a surprise MTB world title next weekend in Italy.

The Dutchman is doubling down this summer on his quest for the one rainbow jersey he doesn’t yet own – potentially putting his start at road worlds at risk.

Van der Poel hits form to face Pidcock, Blevins, Hatherly in Val di Sole

Van der Poel cautioned not to overread Sunday’s result when he spoke at the finish. Winning rainbows won’t be easy next weekend in Val di Sole.

He’ll be toward the back of the start grid and facing traffic.

“This is a nice sign for worlds, but last year I did a good performance here and the week after I was not so good at world championships,” he said, referring to his anonymous ride to 29th last September.

“The start position is important, and I’ll be on the fifth row, so I’ll need a bit of luck,” he said.

Van der Poel faces two-time defending world champion Alan Hatherly, two-time Olympic champion Tom Pidcock, top American Christopher Blevins, Boichis, and a slew of superstar off-roaders next weekend in Val di Sole.

It’s a crazy strong start list. But nobody will be counting MVDP out after Sunday’s near-miss.

MVDP misses out in cross country but gets lucky in short track

Van der Poel should consider himself lucky he made it to the start line of Sunday’s cross country race at all.

The 31-year-old nearly caused himself a very nasty mishap when he misjudged the exit from a rock garden Friday in the short track race.

Cameras pictured MVDP almost overshooting his bike and slamming his … “sensitive regions” into the top tube as he raced in the front group on lap six.

It took all the Dutchman’s world-beating bike handling skills to stay upright.

“It was really very painful. I did expect it to be painful,” Van der Poel said after the short track on Friday. “But it hurt more than I would have liked.”

He ultimately gutted it out for 10th, presumably with everything intact.