{"id":2109249,"date":"2026-08-23T15:12:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T12:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2109249"},"modified":"2026-08-23T15:12:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T12:12:33","slug":"mathieu-van-der-poel-roars-into-contention-for-mtb-worlds-with-sensational-les-gets-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2109249","title":{"rendered":"Mathieu van der Poel Roars into Contention for MTB Worlds with Sensational Les Gets Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mathieu van der Poel very nearly stunned the specialists on Sunday in his first Olympic cross-country mountain bike race in 51 weeks.<\/p>\n
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Alpecin-Premier Tech\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The specialist MTB racers might consider Van der Poel\u2019s second-place finish Sunday a warning shot.<\/p>\n
Van der Poel was using Sunday\u2019s UCI World Cup race as a tune-up for next weekend\u2019s MTB worlds in Val di Sole \u2013 and he just rode himself into the tier of favorites.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Van der Poel blasted into the lead group of five before he and Bochis locked into a last-lap two-man thriller.<\/p>\n
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It was quite the turnaround for Van der Poel. It\u2019s only been four weeks since he lit up the Tour de France with a two-up attack through Paris with Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was really nice to be in the front of an MTB race again,\u201d Van der Poel said at the finish Sunday. \u201cIt\u2019s been a while. I enjoyed it, I missed the last punch to win a little bit, but I\u2019m happy with my performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van der Poel showed Sunday he\u2019s got the skills to snatch a surprise MTB world title next weekend in Italy.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman is doubling down this summer on his quest for the one rainbow jersey he doesn\u2019t yet own\u00a0\u2013 potentially putting his start at road worlds at risk.<\/p>\n
Van der Poel hits form to face Pidcock, Blevins, Hatherly in Val di Sole<\/h2>\nVan der Poel only narrowly missed out on victory in the Les Gets XCO race.<\/span> (Photo: Billy Ceusters\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Van der Poel cautioned not to overread Sunday\u2019s result when he spoke at the finish. Winning rainbows won\u2019t be easy next weekend in Val di Sole.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll be toward the back of the start grid and facing traffic.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis 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,\u201d he said, referring to his anonymous ride to 29th last September.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe start position is important, and I\u2019ll be on the fifth row, so I\u2019ll need a bit of luck,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a crazy strong start list. But nobody will be counting MVDP out after Sunday\u2019s near-miss.<\/p>\n
MVDP misses out in cross country but gets lucky in short track<\/h2>\nVan der Poel went deep to finish 10th in the Les Gets short track after he nearly did himself some serious damage in a rock garden miscue.<\/span> (Photo: Piotr Staron\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Van der Poel should consider himself lucky he made it to the start line of Sunday\u2019s cross country race at all.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Cameras pictured MVDP almost overshooting his bike and slamming his \u2026 \u201csensitive regions\u201d into the top tube as he raced in the front group on lap six.<\/p>\n
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It took all the Dutchman\u2019s world-beating bike handling skills to stay upright.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really very painful. I did expect it to be painful,\u201d Van der Poel said after the short track on Friday. \u201cBut it hurt more than I would have liked.\u201d<\/p>\n
He ultimately gutted it out for 10th, presumably with everything intact.<\/p>\n
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Salvada descomunal de Van der Poel en la Copa del Mundo de MTB de Alta Saboya \ud83d\ude2e\ud83d\ude2e\ud83d\ude2e pic.twitter.com\/nEssbfSiuP<\/p>\n
\u2014 Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) August 21, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2291697358.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated August 23, 2026 11:15AM 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\u2019s all-terrain star finished a narrow second after he was gapped by Adrien Boichis in the final half-lap of the notorious Les […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2109249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2109249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2109249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2109249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2109249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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