Christoph Roodhooft excited to see Mathieu Van der Poel at the Tour de France: "We have tried to get him in optimal shape"

In his final pre-Tour de France stage-race, Mathieu van der Poel took a dominant overall victory at the Baloise Belgium Tour. One that included a stunning solo win on stage 4. According to Alpecin-Deceunick sporting manager Christoph Roodhooft, the Dutchman is in optimal shape.

"Mathieu is doing very well at the moment. We see numbers that we have not seen often or perhaps never before," Roodhooft tells Wielerflits. "There will still be a bit of a natural evolution with him. It will also help that he has had a particularly good training block in La Plagne in recent weeks. He's in good shape. We assume that it is a combination of circumstances that he is already so strong at the moment.”

Taking the win in the general classification of the Baloise Belgium Tour by 40 seconds, ahead of Søren Waerenskjold, van der Poel finished in the top 10 of all 5 stages and also won the points classification. "We have tried to get him in optimal shape for the Tour de France with this training block and this limited series of races," Roodhooft explains.

"Two weeks after the Tour, the World Championships are already on the road in Glasgow. That is close to each other this year, so there is no opportunity to improve during that period," he continues. "After the Tour, it will probably only be recovering.”

"Sunday he will be riding the Dutch National Championships on the road. It is then the intention that he travels to Bilbao rested and fresh. Now there is no need for crazy things anymore," Roodhooft concludes. "I think we are performing very well as a team. Almost all the boys in the Baloise Belgium Tour come down from a height. It is clear that we worked well in La Plagne. And that we also came into the games fresh enough. I think that balance is right.”