Mathieu van der Poel will make his long-anticipated return to mountain biking at the UCI World Cup in Nové Město, scheduled for the weekend of May 23–25. The Dutch star, riding for Alpecin-Deceuninck, is set to compete in his first mountain bike World Cup event in nearly four years.
Van der Poel has not raced since claiming his third Paris-Roubaix title on April 13, capping off a successful spring Classics campaign. Now, he shifts gears to cross-country mountain biking, marking a return to the discipline where he last competed in a World Cup in 2021. That year, he won short-track events in both Albstadt and Nové Město.
Later in 2021, Van der Poel competed in the Tokyo Olympic Games but crashed early in the mountain bike race. The incident triggered a series of back problems that lingered into 2022 and disrupted his racing calendar. Although he took part in the Paris Olympic test event in 2023, he did not compete in the Games themselves.
Since then, the 29-year-old has concentrated on road and cyclocross racing, where he has found considerable success. He has won three cyclocross world titles and secured seven Monument victories over the past three years.
There was speculation that Van der Poel might re-enter the mountain bike scene at the Heubach HC event in Germany this weekend. Instead, he will return at Nové Město, the third round of the 2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. This decision also signals his intention to prepare for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Following Nové Město, Van der Poel will return to road racing, including an appearance at this summer’s Tour de France. His team has confirmed that he will resume mountain biking later in the season, with a more detailed schedule yet to be released. A key target will be the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in September.
Alpecin-Deceuninck also outlined the upcoming race calendar for world champion Puck Pieterse and New Zealand’s Sam Gaze. Both riders will race the HC event in Heubach on May 18 before joining Van der Poel at Nové Město. They will continue to Leogang, Austria (June 5–8), and Val di Sole, Italy (June 20–22). Gaze will also compete in the Andorra round from July 9–13, while Pieterse is tentatively scheduled to race there as well. Her participation will depend on her expected involvement in the Tour de France Femmes in July.
Both Pieterse and Gaze missed the first two World Cup rounds in Brazil. Pieterse opted to focus on the Spring Classics, while Gaze was sidelined due to illness.
The UCI Mountain Bike World Series resumes this weekend, May 16–18, with downhill and enduro events in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. The cross-country season picks up again in Nové Město the following weekend.