Mathieu van der Pol has announced that he will not race mountain bikes this season and will return to off-road racing in 2023. The Dutchman, who currently leads the overall standings at the Giro d'Italia, has set his sights on the Tour de France in July and the UCI Road World Championships in September.

"I plan to get back into the mountain bike routine in 2023," Van der Pol said in an interview with WielerFlits (opens in new tab).

The decision to take a sabbatical from mountain biking was made after consulting with his trade team, Alpecin Phoenix. He has not yet decided on his mountain biking activities for next season, but has confirmed that he will shift his focus toward the 2024 Paris Olympics. And we want to do our best for the Paris Olympics."

The cross-country events at the Olympic Games will take place in Elancourt, where the course is said to resemble Nove Mesto, which he won in 2019. Competing in next season's UCI World Cup competition is an important step toward earning points toward the rolling ranking system that leads to qualification for the Olympics.

Last year, Van der Pol competed in the UCI MTB World Cup, winning the short track and finishing seventh in the cross-country race in Albstadt. He also won the short track and placed second behind Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) in the cross country in Nove Mesto.

He was one of the favorites to win the men's cross-country at the Tokyo Olympics, but crashed in the drop-off section on the opening lap. He later blamed the crash on a misunderstanding over the removal of a safety pier at the drop-off during practice. Pidcock went on to win the Tokyo Olympics championship.

After reviewing x-rays taken at the hospital, doctors confirmed that he had no fractures. Van der Pol, however, had been complaining of back pain since early spring until late last season. The injury was reportedly aggravated by a switch between road and mountain biking last spring.

He then returned to road racing, finishing third in Paris-Roubaix in October, but in December he was diagnosed with a swollen disc and told that he would only have a chance of a full recovery with complete rest, forcing him to cut short his cyclocross campaign.

In February, he was allowed to begin full-time training and finished third in Milan-San Remo. He then took stage wins at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, Dwars door Vlaanderen, and Tour of Flanders.

In this year's Grand Tour, Van der Pol won the opening stage at Visegrad in the Giro d'Italia, taking the event's first Maria Rosa.

He finished second in the second stage time trial in Budapest and held the overall lead until the third stage, won by Mark Cavendish in Balatombühl. The Giro d'Italia will resume on Tuesday with stage 4 on the summit of Mount Etna after a rest day on Monday.