Mathieu van der Poel began the year romping through the UCI Cyclocross World Cup before capturing the world title.
He then switched to the road and enjoyed an incredible
spring topped off with an epic win in Amstel Gold.
And just when the media was running out of superlatives
he’s switched to a third discipline, MTB, and has just demolished the world and
Olympic champion.
Van der Poel was racing the MTB World Cup the Czech
Republic and captured his first win in the competition.
He was with world and Olympic champion Nino Schurter
leading the race when he turned on the power.
The 24-year-old opened a 15-second gap on Schurter in just one minute of racing, as the clip below confirms.
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Van der Poel went on to win the race from Schurter by 19
seconds. The Dutch rider has already qualified for the MTB race at next year’s
Olympics.
He said he was delighted to win an MTB World Cup race as
he had been trying for three years.
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At present in cyclocross he’s the Dutch, European and
world champion and on the road he’s the Dutch champion and was 2nd in the
European’s last year.
The Dutch and European championships were two of only
five one-day road races he competed in last year.
Having ridden his first spring on the road this year he
won a stage of the Tour of Antalya in Turkey (2.2), Grand Prix de Denain (1.HC)
and Dwars door Vlaanderen (1.UWT).
He also claimed a stage at Circuit Cycliste Sarthe-Pays
de la Loire (2.1), De Brabantse Pijl (1.HC) and Amstel Gold Race (1.UWT). And
he was 4th in both the Tour of Flanders and Gent Wevelgem.
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