van der poel began his career on the road and during his first season as a professional he obtained second place in paris–nice behind stephen roche and second place in the la flèche wallonne. in the tour de france, he won two stages; his stage win in 1988 set the record for fastest stage (since then only surpassed by three cyclists). van der poel also competed in cyclo-cross during the winter and obtained great results – that he turned full-time to cyclo-cross in the latter part of his career where he won the world championships in 1996 and the world cup and superprestige classifications in 1997. van der poel retired after the 2000 cyclo-cross world championships where he finished fourth and which was won by his teammate richard groenendaal.