Mathieu van der Poel will make his highly anticipated return to the cyclocross field during the busy Christmas period of races, Alpecin-Deceuninck co-owner Christoph Roodhooft announced on Sunday.
It's been a busy few weeks of off-season for the Dutchman, with a trip out to the USA, more time in sunny Spain and a social media bet to race an Ironman all among the things he's been up to.
But soon, he will be back racing in the discipline where he made his name, and tearing up the cyclocross calendar before pursuing a record eighth World Championship title in the off-road discipline, after equalling Erik De Vlaeminck's seven titles this past February.
Roodhooft, in typical fashion, didn't give too much away about Van der Poel's full 'cross schedule, but did concede with a laugh that "Around Christmas, we'll see him somewhere," speaking to Sporza at the X2O Badkamers Trophy in Hamme.
Wielerflits reported that his off-road calendar will be confirmed fully by Alpecin-Deceuninck after the official course presentation of the 2026 Cyclocross World Championships in Hulst, Zeeland.
It looks likely that one of the UCI World Cup in Antwerp (December 20), Koksijde (December 21), or the X2O Trofee in Hofstade (December 22) could be Van der Poel's starting point, according to the Dutch website. In 2024, he first raced cyclocross three days before Christmas at the World Cup round in Zonhoven.
Van der Poel then won all eight races he competed in throughout the 2024/25 CX season, which concluded with a dominant seventh win at Worlds ahead of Wout van Aert and Thibau Nys in Liévin, France.
For the moment, however, he'll continue to train in Spain, be that on the bike, in the water, or on foot. The Ironman bet came about on his friend and training partner Freddy Ovett's Instagram, with 100,000 likes required for Van der Poel to commit to the challenge.
At the time of writing, the post is sitting at 1.1 million views and 93,000 likes.
