Mathieu van der Poel crashed out of the mountain bike cross country marathon at the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships on Saturday to end his dreams of a unique treble.

Winner of February's World Cyclo-Cross Championships, the 28-year-old Dutch star added the road race world title to his trophies in Glasgow this week and was hoping to become the first rider to claim a historic treble with this mountain bike event.

Van der Poel had been given a fifth row start after not competing for over a year in mountain biking, meaning he was forced into attack immediately.

He then slipped out on a gravely corner of the constantly undulating dirt track route and had to pull out on the opening lap.

Van der Poel also fell in the closing section of his world road race win last Sunday.