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Mathieu van der Poel received his sixth cyclocross world title in Tabor however admitted it may very well be his final, as his street racing takes priority and much more significance.
Van der Poel is now only one world title away from Erik De Vlaeminck’s document of seven world championship wins, however that appears of little significance to him.
“Aside from the world title and the enjoyable, there’s not a lot left for me to achieve in cyclocross. My focus is more and more shifting to the street,” van der Poel defined in interviews after his victory in Tabor.
29-year-old van der Poel is now the undisputed king of elite males’s cyclocross however can not determine on his future within the self-discipline alone. He leads the Alpecin-Deceuninck staff, which positive factors quite a lot of publicity from his cyclocross success, and he additionally earns important begin charges.
Any closing resolution to overlook the 2024/2025 cyclocross season consists of quite a lot of components and impacts individuals. It could additionally cut back the curiosity within the winter self-discipline.
“It’s a choice that I clearly can not make alone. However we are going to focus on it throughout the staff,” Van der Poel stated, explaining the largest cause for any resolution to hold up his cyclocross bike.
“Cross within the winter is one thing that takes quite a lot of vitality,” he stated. “If it seems that I can carry out even higher on the street by skipping cyclo-cross, then I’ll try this.”
Van der Poel will quickly flip his consideration to the 2024 street racing season, however a closing resolution on his future in cyclocross will take rather a lot longer.
“We’ll know extra about my street programme in two weeks, however not but about subsequent winter,” he laughed, deferring any expectations.
Van der Poel loved an ideal race in Tabor. He instantly hit the entrance and rode away from the sector to win by 37 seconds.
He accomplished a near-perfect cyclocross marketing campaign of 13 victories in 14 races. His solely defeat got here within the Benidorm World Cup after hitting a pole at velocity, and he needed to finish on a excessive.
“It could have been a disgrace to overlook out on the world title after such a season. However a race nonetheless must be run, and the highest favorite has usually not received,” he stated.
“However I had good legs. I believe I primarily rode very managed and by no means took many dangers. Stones have been thrown up in lots of locations, I attempted to take these sections as fastidiously as potential and pushed on the place I may.”
On the end line, Van der Poel climbed off his bike and pointed to his Canyon bike.
“That the bike did a superb job, which is essential in a cyclocross,” he concluded.
