Mathieu van der Poel's back injury had been an issue for two years before his crash at the Olympics and was the "price" he paid for his high volume of racing, his psyiotherapist, David Bombeke, has said.
However, Bombeke also said the Alpecin Fenix rider had now recovered from the injury, which was aggravated by his crash in the MTB race at the Olympics in July.
That crash forced Van der Poel onto the sidelines for a period after the Games and physiotherapist Bombeke said that break in action had helped to finally address his back injury.
“He is doing very well,” Bombeke told Het Nieuwsblad. "That break has clearly benefited Mathieu, but he is someone who likes to train.
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“The back (injury) no longer an issue. That was a problem of an accumulation of years; mountain biking, cyclocross, racing on the road, stress, his fall at the Games, the Tour…
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"Actually, we never saw that as something alarming. We were just never able to deal with that problem thoroughly because he could never really take a rest. So it was a form of overload.
“We treated him like a new patient and looked at how we can address his weaknesses. He has done exercises for the past two years, but more for maintenance.
"Mathieu lives on adrenaline and we are not going to be able to change that right away. So he had to pay a bit of the price for that with his back.”
