"He is motivated, healthy and has been able to train well" - Alpecin optimistic on Mathieu van der Poel's chances at Strade Bianche
Cycling
Mathieu van der Poel is set to start his road season this Saturday at Strade Bianche. A former race winner, the Dutchman will be highly motivated to kick off his spring in a race that suits him perfectly.
"He is motivated, healthy and has been able to train well. It is difficult to judge whether Mathieu is as strong as when he won the Strade in 2021, but I can say that he is very fine. He is motivated, healthy, has been able to train well and has had few physical discomforts," Alpecin-Deceuninck manager Christoph Roodhoft told Het Laatste Nieuws.
Read also
The Dutchman put in quite a lot of focus this winter of obtaining the best form and hunting down the World Championships. In Hoogerheide, he outsprinted Wout van Aert to take his fifth Elite world title in the discipline.
Click here to create your own team for the Fantasy Strade Bianche (At least 3,195 USD/3,000 Euro/2,665 GBP in prizes!)
“After the Cyclocross World Championships, he took a vacation and then spent two weeks at altitude in Syncrosfera (high-altitude conditions replicating tent, ed.)," Roodhoft revealed. "He has been gone since Sunday. Today we explore the race. Strade Bianche is a difficult race, but also quite predictable. No matter how strong the field is, the best will eventually ride at the front.”
The white roads of Tuscany are dangerous, but the technical sectors suit an off-road specialist such as van der Poel. Combining that with plenty of short and sharp efforts, the Dutchman will start as one of the main favourites despite this being his first competitive outing of the year.
The team is in need of big wins, so far lacking results. However the spring is beginning now. “Apologies, but every team encounters such things. So we don't want to hide behind it. Our start is mediocre and other teams are doing well, but it's not like we're crying in a corner," he argued. "In the end, our leaders have barely raced. A total of twelve of our riders slept at altitude. We do this to aim even higher in the races that matter to us, but that also has consequences.”
“We will only be able to say afterwards: we were stupid or we did the right thing. If March and April are also disappointing, we will have to rethink our strategy, but within two weeks the world could look completely different," Roodhoft concluded.
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Does everything need to have a point? If so, 99% of the internet should be wiped away. In relation to recent articles with quotes from other riders, my statement points to the ever more obvious reason why they are asked to comment on the effect of his return.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- If anyone would be interested enough to launch an official survey as to who out of these three should shut up, I don’t know who’d win but I’m due Boonen would be way back in 3rd place.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- And your point is what exactly?vappaxbipmv22-12-2024
- MVDP dominates this sport even more than Pogaçar dominates road racing. Also he can beat Tadej on the road quite regularly, the opposite is unlikely.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- If you listen to team radios you'll hear each DS telling their riders to ride faster, fight their way to the front, and all occupy the same 8 places.Sweep22-12-2024
- You're talking about a sport where equipment and clothing is measured in grams.Sweep22-12-2024
- “During a TT, I am basically blind”. That was his quote after crashing into the barriers in a TT. The problem isn’t the UCI, radios or air bags. The problem is the riders and their teams.JoeyB22-12-2024
- I think you overestimate scientific knowledge and for sure the spreading of it. There are huge numbers of people in similar situations, if there were an easy solution somebody would be making big money out of it. Nerve pain can have many complex origins or be due to complex combinations of reasons. Even if you discover a reason there is not always a solution. Migraines haven’t been solved either. I have had lower back/hip nerve pains on and off for over 30 years, no kind of doctor has ever found a way to reduce, prevent or solve the problem. It may just be that some people are born with nerves that are too short or get twisted out of position during certain movements.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- Amazing ride by her and very promising for her future. On a side note, it’s a bit worrying all these wins riders have after emotional moments in their lives, someone will come up with emotional doping at some point. Maybe give them fake news just before a big race to get hormones pumping.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- I doubt he will have the energy to do that if he continues to do leadout for Phillipsenabstractengineer22-12-2024