Mathieu van der Poel remains undecided on mountain bike road race double at Paris 2024: “It's a difficult puzzle”

Mathieu van der Poel has a difficult choice to make.

Ahead of next year’s Paris Olympic Games the versatile Dutchman, who excels in both mountain bike and road race, has to decide where to put his focus.

Should the reigning road race world champion only target the MTB event, where he crashed out in Tokyo?

Or should he go for the possibility of becoming Olympic champion in both MTB and road race, but risk compromising his chances in the MTB?

When asked the question at the Madrid Criterium, which he won, the five-time cyclo-cross world champion admits that he still has to work out how to approach the summer in France.

“It is not yet decided (to do both MTB and road),” van der Poel told Olympics.com.

“We still have to make the puzzle. It's a really difficult combination, especially if you want to do the Tour de France as well. We have a few different scenarios on the table, but we have to see which one we're going to choose. I'll have to make choices, and I still have to think about it now.”

The 2024 Tour de France concludes in Nice just a week before the Olympic MTB race.

Mathieu van der Poel: An easier combination with MTB first

In Paris, the MTB event takes place on 29 July and the men's road race on 3 August, leaving van der Poel with just five days to transition from one discipline to the other. However, there is one positive thing to take away from the event planning.

“It's difficult to mix for sure, but I think that the mountain bike is before the road race is an easier combination than the other way around,” he said.

“I think if I want to really be at the top level, I have to do some more mountain bike races again.”

Van der Poel is set to start his cyclo-cross campaign in December, where he is hoping to defend his world title in Tabor, Czechia in February.