Mathieu van der Pol's 2020 season was originally supposed to be built around winning a mountain bike gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, but the Dutch rider has revealed that he is now unlikely to participate in this year's mountain bike event.

The Olympics were postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak, and the 2020 World Mountain Bike Cross Country Championships, originally scheduled to take place in Albstadt, Germany in June, will now be held in Leogang, Austria from October 5 to 11 The event was rescheduled to take place in Leogang, Austria, from October 5 to 11.

However, most of the Spring Classics were postponed until the fall, and Van der Pol will compete on the road in Alpecin Phoenix in October.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also almost wiped out the mountain bike World Cup calendar. The Lenzerheide and Les Gets World Cups were cancelled, and the only cross-country races were a double series in Nove Město, Czech Republic, from September 29 to October 4.

"The mountain bike World Cup in Les Gets could have been combined with the new road calendar, but Les Gets was also cancelled. Mountain biking will not happen for me this year," Van der Pol told Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab).

"I don't want to do just one race somewhere. Switching to mountain biking is the hardest thing for me, so I want to be as prepared as possible."

Van der Pol won his third cyclocross world title in February, but the 25-year-old has raced just once on the road, in 2020 at Volta ao Algarve. He will return to competition at the Sibiu Tour in Romania (July 23-26) and will race in Strade Bianche, Italy, in August.