Mathieu van der Poel weighs up skipping Tour de France

Dutchman hints at missing Tour in favour of mtb Worlds bid, reports Tom Thewlis from Dénia, Spain

- Tom Thewlis

Mathieu van der Poel could skip the Tour de France next year to enable him to focus on other major summer goals, including winning the mountain bike cross-country world title in Switzerland.

The Dutchman has endured three underwhelming editions since making his Tour debut during the Covid-hit season in 2021, in which he took a stage win at Mûr-de-Bretagne in Brittany and pulled on the yellow jersey.

He has failed to match that same success in the years that followed but has flourished in the Classics. Van der Poel told Cycling Weekly at his team’s winter training camp in Spain that he is considering skipping the biggest road race of the season in order to turn his attention to accolades that have previously eluded him.