“If you come third, you can also win" - Alpecin-Deceuninck retain faith that Mathieu van der Poel can add Liege-Bastogne-Liege to palmares in future

After a brave effort, Mathieu van der Poel scraped and clawed his way to a podium finish at Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2024 on Sunday afternoon. Although that elusive victory wasn't taken, Alpecin-Deceuninck retain faith that one day it will come.

“It was the highest possible,” Alpecin-Deceuninck boss Christoph Roodhooft reflected afterwards to Wielerflits, noting the fact that van der Poel was on the back foot early after being caught behind a crash in the bunch. “It was a strange crash. It was very poorly marked. We actually thought that the calf had already drowned, but in the end there were still enough teams that wanted to ride in the second group. Ultimately, they did the work to bring that group back. The decision was then made to leave the cars in between, after the jury initially did not opt ​​for this. Then everything came together very quickly."

Van der Poel himself was somewhat doubtful about his Liege-Bastogne-Liege future, saying "I now understand what they mean when they say that the cobblestone and hill classics can't be combined. We have to be realistic and even with the best legs I won't be able to follow Pogacar on La Redoute. That is food for thought for the future. Maybe I don't focus on it anymore. Only time will tell."

For Roodhooft however, the possibility for future victory remains. “If you come third, you can also win," he concludes. "If Pogacar is there it will of course be very difficult, but if he is not riding: why not? He delivered a very good performance. It is not easy to prepare yourself for this race if you have already ticked off all your goals."