Mathieu van der Poel confirmed for Critérium du Dauphiné following wrist fracture

Mathieu van der Poel will line up at the Critérium du Dauphiné despite initial fears he would miss the race after he fractured a wrist in a crash at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Nové Mesto.

Alpecin-Deceuninck confirmed Van der Poel’s presence in their line-up for the race in an announcement on Thursday, stating that he has “recovered sufficiently from his wrist injury and will line up this weekend at [the Dauphiné].”

Van der Poel crashed twice and abandoned the World Cup event in Nové Mesto on May 25, his first mountain bike race since 2023. His team later confirmed that he had suffered “a minor avulsion fracture of the scaphoid bone, indicative of ligament damage to the wrist.”

The injury forced Van der Poel to miss part of an altitude training camp with Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Tour de France squad, though fears that he would miss La Grande Boucle itself were allayed when he quickly resumed training on an indoor trainer, albeit wearing a wrist brace. Barely a week later, he was sighted training on the road in Spain.

Van der Poel’s presence at the Dauphiné means that he will now follow his previously advertised racing calendar ahead of the Tour. The Dauphiné will mark Van der Poel’s first road race since he scored his third Paris-Roubaix victory in succession in April.

The 30-year-old enjoyed a sparkling Classics campaign, also winning Milan-San Remo and E3 Harelbeke and a third place behind Mads Pedersen and Tadej Pogacar at the Tour of Flanders.

The rugged opening days of the Dauphiné should play to Van der Poel’s talents. He will be joined in the Alpecin-Deceuninck line-up by Tobias Bayer, Michael Gogl, Xando Meurisse, Johan Price-Pejtersen, Gianni Vermeersch and Lars Boven.