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BRUSSELS — World champion Mathieu van der Poel will focus on the Olympic road race at the Paris Games this summer, after competing in the Tour de France, and skip mountain biking. The versatile Dutch racer said Wednesday that combining the Tour and the road race is "the most logical" choice. Van der Poel has won titles in many disciplines and thought at one point about competing in the cross-country mountain bike event at the Olympics. But he faced what he called a "difficult puzzle to put together" with the route of the road race suiting his skills. He hinted that he could compete in mountain biking at future Olympics. Van der Poel crashed out of the mountain bike race at the Tokyo Olympics.
