Mathieu van der Pol crashed in a cross-country mountain bike race at the Tokyo Olympics and blamed the removal of a wooden ramp for his elimination from contention for the win.

The Dutchman crashed violently on the opening lap of the competition. He subsequently injured his hip and underwent X-rays at the hospital.

When van der Pol scouted the course, he found a downhill wooden plank at the point where he crashed. Van der Pol stated on Twitter that he did not know the planks would be removed during the race.

Neither Gerben de Knegt, the Dutch national coach, nor Milan Verder, Van der Pol's teammate who finished 10th, could explain how the popular pre-race athlete was unaware that the boards would be removed.

"It may be hard to say, but we talked about it at lunch today," Vader told NOS.

"Mathieu said, 'Everyone jumps there. So you don't? He said, 'No, I'm going to roll off that board.' Then I told him I took that board off for the test event for the 2019 competition."

Van der Pol admitted on Twitter that he had assumed the board was in place during the race.

"I had no idea. I was only told they were removed during the test event," Van der Pol wrote.

Asked if he had been informed in advance that the boards had been removed, Van der Paul replied, "No, I knew nothing about it." He also confirmed that he had undergone X-rays at the hospital after the accident.

In the cross-country, Tom Pidcock (GBR) won by 20 seconds over Matthias Fruechiger (SW), with David Valero of Spain taking bronze.