TOM PIDCOCK AND MATHIEU VAN DER POEL WILL BOTH RACE THIS YEAR’S TOUR DE FRANCE
Which mountain biker will prove stronger on the road this year?
Mountain bike stars Tom Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel will both be racing in this year’s Tour de France, which starts this Friday, July 1st, and and runs through July 24th. The two riders, who are both world-class road bike racers, are also two of the best mountain bike racers in the world.
Both have won UCI mountain bike World Cup races. Pidcock is also the current Olympic champion of mountain biking. Van der Poel is the rider who beat Nino Schurter in 9 of their 10 World Cup races in 2019 (counting both the cross-country and short track events) before Van der Poel pulled out of the 2019 World Cup series to focus on the road again. Even though he split his time between road and mountain bikes, Van der Poel ended up second in the World Cup Cross-country Olympic (XCO) rankings in both 2018 and 2019.
Olympic mountain biking gold medalist Tom Pidcock. Photo by Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
Pidcock beat Van der Poel in their one World Cup XCO matchup in 2021, then went on to win the Olympic gold medal a few weeks later (the race had been delayed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic). Van der Poel crashed in that Olympic race, hurting his back, ruining his chances in the Olympic mountain bike event.
Mathieu van der Poel is a world-class mountain bike racer who earned the yellow leader’s jersey through six stages of last year’s Tour de France. Photo: Canyon Cycles
Van der Poel, who has been widely predicted to someday be a mult-time winner of the Tour de France, led six stages in last year’s Tour de France before withdrawing from the race to get ready for the Olympic mountain bike race, which he was planning to win. Sadly, Van der Poel crashed on the rock-drop section of the Olympic course and was unable to follow through on his plans, while Pidcock rode on to claim the gold medal.
It will be very interesting to see how Pidcock and Van der Poel fare in this year’s Tour de France. This will be Pidcock’s first Tour de France.
The two racers are both widely considered to be two of the greatest cyclists in history, even though both of them are still in the early stages of their careers.
