Alpecin boss reveals all on secret pre-Tour of Flanders illness for Mathieu van der Poel: "He had to take antibiotics for three days"

Despite his best efforts, Mathieu van der Poel couldn't match Tadej Pogacar when the latter made his ultimately race-winning attack on the final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont at the 2025 Tour of Flanders on Sunday afternoon. As it turns out though, Van der Poel himself might not have been at 100%, following a secret pre-race illness that plagued his preparation in the week prior.

Any talk of such an illness was kept totally hush-hush ahead of the Tour of Flanders, but following his team leader's 3rd placed finish at the line, Alpecin-Deceuninck boss Christoph Roodhooft revealed all in discussion with Sporza. "Nothing can be done about it," begins Roodhooft's reflections. "We hoped for a perfect day, but clearly, the end was just too much for him."

And on the actual illness, Roodhooft revealed: "He casually told me on April 1st (last Tuesday) that he was very sick. 'Don’t laugh,’ I told him. But he had to take antibiotics for three days. It was a tough lead-up. Being ill is never pleasant, and he missed a few training sessions."

This illness was actually already at play for Van der Poel during the E3 Saxo Classic, despite him taking that win on that day. "He was already sniffling during the E3. We felt it was getting better, but then it got worse. There’s nothing you can do about it," Roodhooft recalls.

There was also a mid-race blow for Van der Poel as the Dutchman crashed relatively early on. "That crash also came at the wrong time," Roodhooft added. "His shoulder seems to be hurting, though I haven’t spoken to him yet. Mathieu managed to get back into the race fairly quickly, and we gave him his good bike back. He’s sensitive to those things."

"It’s not that we were outnumbered, though. We did lose some riders, but the same happened to other teams as well. You always hold onto a quiet hope. On the second Kwaremont, I thought it was impressive how he responded to Pogacar’s attack," the Alpecin-Deceuninck boss concludes. "You hope for a perfect day, but in the end, it was just too much. But the difference wasn’t huge, mind you."