Mathieu van der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) said he will continue to ride multiple disciplines until the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Dutchman told WielerFlits (open in new tab) that he hopes to continue racing road, cyclocross, and mountain bike until then.

Van der Pol is the current cyclocross world champion, having defended his title earlier this year in Dubendorf, Switzerland. He also holds the European cross-country mountain bike title and had targeted a cross-country race at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but the event was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Last season, van der Pol won the Amstel Gold Race, Dwarsdor Flandern, and Brabantspijl in the spring, followed by the Tour of Britain The 25-year-old was scheduled to debut in Paris-Roubaix this year, but switched to mountain biking in the summer

"I will continue to ride," he said.

"I hope to combine all three disciplines in the future," van der Pol told WielerFlits. For now, I will continue with mountain biking until Paris. I can work hard for three more years to become world champion in this discipline. I really love mountain biking."

Van der Poel and his Alpecin Phoenix team had hoped for an invitation this season to the Vuelta a España, his Grand Tour debut, until race director Javier Guillen ended their hopes late last year.

The team petitioned for an invitation to the Tour de France, but it appears that the Dutch rider will have to wait until 2021 to make his debut in the three-week race.

"Normally, I would concentrate on riding Grand Tours for two or three years," he said. After that, I'll go back to mountain biking and run World Cup races in combination with the Grand Tours. That way I can stay at the top of the rankings."

"The uniqueness of what I'm doing is that I'm combining mountain biking, road biking, and cyclo-cross.

Van der Pol has yet to announce his full schedule after the UCI calendar revision, but his goal is likely to be the same route as before: the spring classics. The Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix will be held one week apart at the end of October instead of the usual April.