Adrie van der Poel: “I'm certainly not nervous yet and neither is Mathieu"

Amstel Gold Race is perhaps the Netherlands' most important classic and is a special event for Adrie van der Poel who has won it in 1990. Mathieu van der Poel has now won it in 2019 and is looking to add a second triumph to his palmarès this Sunday.

“I only saw Mathieu today at breakfast, but I haven't spoken to him yet. It's a working day for him and I'm not going to disturb him," Adrie told L1 this morning. “I'm certainly not nervous yet and neither is Mathieu, I think. He has shown in recent weeks that he can live up to his favorite status, so he does not need to see that today."

The image coming through the Alpecin-Deceuninck camp is that of relaxation and focus. The team has won all three monuments so far, and over the past two weekends has put on very dominantly displays of power at both Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. A cyclocross expert, Mathieu is racing once a week in the same type of schedule, and with his very best form and lack of bad luck he's been taking very convincing wins.

Today he can do so again, although there is a lot of quality competition. Adrie van der Poel does warn for the amount of outsiders that can steal the spotlight today: “There are plenty of other contenders today, with Tom Pidcock or the men from Lidl-Trek, for example, but I must honestly say that I have not yet looked into the starting list. A lot of different riders are starting than in recent weeks.”