Beobank-Corendon’s rider, Mathieu van der Poel has finally been able to fully recover from a recent illness and now has decided to start the UCI World Cup on Boxing Day (Tuesday) in Heusden-Zolder. His father, Adrie van der Poel confirmed the news for Veldritkrant.be.
“We looked at it day by day,” Adrie van der Poel claimed. “Mathieu starts in Zolder and there are no changes for the time being in the rest of his program.”
Mathieu has been sick with a common cold ahead of the World Cup major event in Namur 10 days ago. Even though he seemed to put a lot of effort trying to finish the race in that delicate physical condition, he was still able to finish third, losing just over a minute to the final winner, Crelan-Charles’s rider, Wout Van Aert.
Needed my ? to finish it off today. Good battle! #scheldecross
? @cxhandbook pic.twitter.com/NeyMTQdvoz
— Mathieu Van der Poel (@mathieuvdpoel) December 16, 2017
Back in his best shape for a tight schedule
After taking the week off, he has now finally returned to training and, after the World Cup event in Heusden-Zolder, on December 28, Van der Poel will be part of the DVV verzekeringen trofee – Azencross’ start which will take place in Loenhout.
He will also take part in the Cyclocross Bredene which is set to start a day later, on December 29. After these events, he plans to race the Telenet Superprestige Diegem which will be held on December 30, which will also be Mathieu’s final race for this season.
Next year, Van der Poel has scheduled to race DVV verzekeringen trofee – GP Sven Nys which will take place on January 1 in Baal, sealing his World Cup standings leadership having 455 points so far. Second place is held by Van Aert with 380 points and Aerts in third with 334 points.
