"He is motivated, healthy and has been able to train well" - Alpecin optimistic on Mathieu van der Poel's chances at Strade Bianche

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.

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.

“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.