Mathieu van der Poel who has been suffering from rib pain for a week after hitting a pole at the Loenhout event at the end of December, will not take part in this Sunday’s World Cup round in Dendermonde, his team announced.
The world champion has already had to skip the Superprestige round in Baal on January 1 and the prestigious meeting in the Koksijde dunes on Friday.
“There is no point in waiting any longer. I did another test (on Friday) and it was clear that the Dendermonde came too early. On the uneven off-road terrain my ribs still hurt a lot. So far, nothing my choice but be patient,” The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider stated that this season he won the five events in which he participated (Zonhoven, Mol, Gavere, Loenhout and Besançon).
However, this setback did not delay the rest of his cyclocross-country season or his road cycling campaign.
“On the asphalt I don’t feel any pain,” he said in a team statement on Friday, as he prepared “as planned” to leave for a ten-day stint in Spain with the team.
The Dendermonde test will be the scene of one of this year’s rare confrontations between “MVDP” and his great Belgian rival Wout Van Aert.
Despite this setback, Van der Poel remains the big favorite for the Liévin World Championships, at the beginning of February in France, where he aims to match the record of world titles (7) held by Belgian Eric De Vlaeminck.
Source: La Verdad
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