According to Het Laatste Nieuws, cyclocross world champion Mathieu Van der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) will return to the field at the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Luxembourg, Netherlands, on December 18, but will have a much reduced schedule than last season. He plans to reduce his schedule significantly from last season.

He will face his archrival Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) for the first time at the World Cup in Dendermonde on December 26.

Last season, Van der Pol competed in 12 races before the World Championships in Oostende, where he overcame an early crash to catch Van Aert.

This year, he will concentrate on the World Cup race in Fayetteville, USA, at the end of January, where more points are awarded for starting positions in the World Championships. This is an important factor after the UCI opted to reset riders' accumulated points to zero, except for points earned at the 2021 World Championships.

Van der Pol has 400 points from this victory, but since he has not yet raced, he sits in 21st place in the UCI standings.

After the Alpecin Phoenix team camp in Spain from December 1-10, Van der Pol will look to add to his points tally, first at the Luxembourg World Cup in the Netherlands and then the following day at the Namur World Cup in Belgium.

The following weekend, he will compete in the Dendermonde World Cup and possibly the Superprestige in Heusden-Zolder (December 26-27). After that, Van der Pol's calendar will be blank until the World Cup in Hulst on January 2.

The Dutch National Championships will be held on January 9 in Zaltbommel, and according to Wielerflits.nl, Van der Pol will defend the title he won in 2020; no races were held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Van der Pol's plan includes only four or five races before the All-Japan Championship, while Van Aert has 11 races. In the weeks between the All-Japan Championships and the World Championships, there are two more World Cup races, in Flamanville, France, on January 16 and in Hoogerheide on January 23, before the World Championships on January 30.

Van der Pol had an intense 2021 season, winning his fourth elite 'cross world title before heading to the UAE Tour and winning the opening stage, but had to leave the race after his team staff tested positive for COVID-19 He had to leave the race after a team staff member tested positive for COVID-19.

He returned home for the Classics, finishing fifth in Milan-San Remo, third in the E3 Classic, and won a sprint for second place in the Tour of Flanders, winning two stages, Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico.

After a break, he competed twice in the MTB World Cup in preparation for the Olympics, winning twice in the Tour de Suisse. In the Tour de France, he won the second stage of the Mule de Bretagne and led the race for six days.

At the Olympics, he crashed on the first lap in the men's mountain bike cross-country race.

After suffering from back pain early in the season, van der Pol took time off for rehabilitation and returned to the road in September with the rescheduled Paris-Roubaix at the end of the season as his major goal.

He finished third behind Sonny Colbrelli and Florian Vermeersch.