{"id":61711,"date":"2026-09-05T09:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T09:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/61711\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T09:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T09:35:09","slug":"mathieu-van-der-poel-preparing-for-the-worlds-in-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/61711\/","title":{"rendered":"Mathieu van der Poel preparing for the Worlds in Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/mathieu-van-der-poel\" title=\"Mathieu van der Poel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> managed to find some time to relax between his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/mountain-biking\/mathieu-van-der-poel-totally-bummed-after-the-mountain-bike-world-championships-i-still-dont-have-an-explanation-for-that\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">World Championships<\/a>. On Friday, the Dutchman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/stories\/mathieuvanderpoel\/?hl=nl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">shared a photo<\/a> from Scotland, where he was spotted at his favorite golf course near Loch Lomond. Van der Poel will compete as the Netherlands\u2019 team leader at the World Championships in Canada in two weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Just five days ago, he was still at the starting line of the Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy, but things didn\u2019t go as expected. Starting from the fifth row, Van der Poel was unable to contend for a podium finish and ultimately finished just inside the top 30\u2014which wasn\u2019t why he had traveled to Italy.<\/p>\n<p>Just a day after Val di Sole, he was already back on the golf course in Belgium\u2014 a place he has now traded for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/stories\/mathieuvanderpoel\/?hl=nl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Scottish greens<\/a>. With the Road World Championships approaching, this might provide some new motivation: it was in that region that he became world road cycling champion in spectacular fashion in 2023, by leaving everyone in the dust on the city circuit in Glasgow.<\/p>\n<p>Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mvdp-loch-lomond.png@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"mvdp-loch-lomond\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mathieu van der Poel at Loch Lomond Golf Club.<\/p>\n<p>Van der Poel&#8217;s preparation for the Road World ChampionshipsIn three weeks, Van der Poel will be the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/cycling\/mathieu-van-der-poels-support-squad-named-as-he-chases-world-championship-glory-in-canada\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">team leader for the Dutch squad<\/a> at the start of the World Championships in Montreal, Canada. \u201cWith Mathieu, we obviously have someone who knows what it takes to become world champion, and we\u2019re heading into this World Championship with that same ambition,\u201d national team coach Koos Moerenhout said in a press release.<\/p>\n<p>In the run-up to the Road World Championships, Van der Poel will race the Tour of Luxembourg. In doing so, he is following the same preparation plan he used in 2024, when that stage race set him up for a strong performance in Zurich. Van der Poel is, incidentally, choosing the Tour of Luxembourg over the Quebec and Montreal Grand Prix races, which are also taking place in Canada next week.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mathieu van der Poel managed to find some time to relax between his World Championships. On Friday, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22974,18618,22973,44,22972],"class_list":["post-61711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alpecin-premier-tech","tag-cycling","tag-cycling-world-championships","tag-golf","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}