Mathieu van der Pol has yet to confirm whether he will compete on the cyclocross circuit this winter, and the reigning world champion insists he will not decide on a program until he returns from vacation.

The 29-year-old, who won a bronze medal at last week's road world championships in Zurich, took the rainbow jersey at the gravel world championships in Leuven on Sunday.

Van der Pol won world titles in road, cyclocross, and gravel, and then hinted that he might go after the mountain bike rainbow jersey in 2025. However, it is less clear if the Dutchman will be part of the cyclocross program this winter.

“I don't know if I'll ride cyclocross,” he said, “maybe. If I knew, I would tell you,” Van der Pol said, according to Wielerflits. I still have to decide if I will ride cyclocross this winter. First I'm going on vacation.

Since moving his main focus to the road, Van der Poel has started his cyclocross campaign relatively late in the season, but he still has quite a few races on his schedule.

Last winter, Van der Poel only started his cyclocross season in mid-December in Herentals, but he competed in a total of 14 events. He won 13 of those events and claimed his sixth cyclocross world title in Tabor.

Van der Pol had competed in 15 cyclocross races the previous year, winning seven, but his 2021-22 cyclocross campaign was limited to two races due to a back injury.

It is also unclear if Wout Van Aert will be able to compete in cyclocross races this winter after injuring his knee at the Vuelta a España last month. The Belgian raced a reduced cyclocross schedule last year with an eye toward his road campaign.

“Nothing is for sure yet and I will see how I feel. It would be a little crazy to talk about it now,” VanArt replied when asked last month about his cyclocross plans for this winter.

“The only problem is that the running and jumping might be a little difficult at first, because I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it in the first few weeks.