Mathieu Van Der Pol had planned a few days of rest in Veneto between the first UCI Gravel World Championships and Friday's Serenissima Gravel.

On Wednesday morning, Van der Pol could have enjoyed a leisurely ride in the autumn sun on the terrace of the Bassano del Grappa cafe. Instead, he chose to volunteer himself for the Alpecin de Seuninck lineup and compete in the Giro del Veneto. Leisure seems incompatible with the worldview of a man who seems to have been conditioned to compete.

"I've been here for a week anyway," Van der Pol said as he stepped off the team bus at Padua's impressive Prato della Valle before the Giro del Veneto. 'It's hard to keep training, so I opted to race to keep busy.'

The presence of van der Pol immediately made him a strong contender for the Giro del Veneto. In fact, his teammate Xandro Mouris, last year's winner, even gave him the number one spot, just as he gave Cristiano Ronaldo the number seven spot.

At the World Championships in Australia, he had the misfortune of being charged with assault after an altercation with two teenage girls at a hotel the night before the race. However, he was unable to take advantage of an important move cleared by teammate Jay Vine just before he rounded Vicenza and opted to drop out of the race just before the finish.

Friday's Serenissima Gravel brought the curtain down on a more taxing than usual campaign for van der Pol. A back injury delayed the start of his road season until mid-March, and he tried to make up for lost time by combining the Classics, Giro d'Italia, and Tour de France.

A win at the Tour of Flanders and the opening day of the Giro culminated that sequence, but when he abandoned the Tour in July, Van der Pol's fatigue was evident.

"I think this year I'm a little more mentally tired than physically tired. I'm a little more mentally tired than physically tired this year," Van der Pol said on Wednesday morning. I wanted to do the World Championships in gravel because it's kind of a special race. After Friday, I'll be happy to get some rest again.

At this point, Van der Pol has yet to finalize the details of his 2023 calendar, but he has already painted a rough picture. After missing most of last year's cyclocross season, he will return to the off-road circuit this winter, while his road schedule will focus on the classics and the Tour.

"Definitely, I will only participate in one Grand Tour next year," van der Pol said.

"I think this year was a bit of an exception because I had the chance to take the pink jersey at the Giro, and I'm not sure I'll be able to do that again.

"I'll decide when the cyclocross season starts after I take a break.

Van der Poel competes in a variety of road, cyclocross, mountain bike, and gravel events; one season seems to flow into the next, with little rest. Only the back injury that plagued him last winter allowed him to take some time off from competition.

In a week in which Vincenzo Nibali, Philippe Gilbert, and Alejandro Valverde have put an end to careers spanning more than two decades, van der Pol acknowledged that given the ever-increasing demands of the sport, it is unlikely that he and his contemporaries will match the longevity of the previous generation He acknowledged.

"I read an interview with Serge Pauwels last week, and he said that the new generation will only last into their 30s, maybe 35. I think that makes sense," van der Pol said.

"I think it's the evolution of cycling. As you can see with [Juan] Ayuso, he's already on the podium of a Grand Tour at 19 years old. For me, there is no way I could do this for 15 years. I can only speak for myself. The way I feel now, I definitely don't plan to continue until I'm 40."

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