Report: WorldTour teams interested in Olympic gold speed skater Nils van der Poel
Jumbo-Visma and EF Education-EasyPost have taken note of the double Olympic medalist's performance while training on the bike.
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Jumbo-Visma has turned its attention to Olympic gold medal speed skater Nils van der Poel, according to the Algemeen Dagblad podcast In Het Wiel.
Van der Poel said at a press conference in early March that after the conclusion of the 2022 season, he would hang up his competitive skates.
“I will finish the season as a top skater,” the Swedish racer said. “After that, I’ll be a hobby skater for the rest of my life.”
Van der Poel published a training diary after his wins in the 5,000m and 10,000m races in the recent Winter Olympics. In his journal, he documented his cross-training for skating, which included massive amounts of time in the saddle.
Also read: This Olympic champion speed skater trains on the bike 30 hours per week
In How to skate a 10K van der Poel wrote that his training included cycling an average of five hours a day, and he did a large percentage over this lactate threshold.
Should the Dutch squad pick up van der Poel, it would not be the first time an athlete came to the team from a different sporting background.
Three-time Vuelta a España winner Primož Roglič came to cycling after a career as a ski jumper. And on the Jumbo-Visma women’s team, Amber Kraak came from the Dutch national rowing team where she won the U23 world championship in the lightweight women’s double sculls.
Jumbo-Visma has a professional skating team, but van der Poel is not on the Dutch-based team’s roster.
When questioned by Wielerflits about who at Jumbo-Visma has contacted van der Poel, the team declined to comment.
EF Education First is a Swedish-founded company, and it’s also been reported that Jonathan Vaughter’s EF Education-EasyPost team has also taken notice of the 25-year-old.
While the Swedish skater shares a similar family name with a certain Mathieu who races for Alpecin-Fenix, there is no relation between the two.