Is Mathieu van der Poel's spring already a success? "Yes, but the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are the most important races"

Mathieu van der Poel is riding a wave of success for over two years now, barely having any wrong step, and maintaining his form and health pristine at the key moments of his seasons. Without major obstacles, he continues to evolve and expand his palmarès, which already includes another Milano-Sanremo and E3 Saxo Classic this spring. However, despite not having much pressure anymore, his main goals are still to come.

After the Belgian classic this Friday however, he was not pleased with the collective acceleration that happened after an early crash which saw him and several other favourites almost three minutes down at a certain point. “I don’t think it’s fair play to go full throttle after a crash where more than half of the peloton is blocked. For me, this is something we as a team would never do. But yes, in the end I think we handled it quite well," Van der Poel shared with Wielerflits.

“No, I was already quite motivated, also because the team worked so hard. Of course I want to finish it with a victory. Without the team I can’t fight for the victory, so yes, I am really grateful for the work they did," he aknowledges. "I’m not going to waste too many words on it. It just shows the real problem in cycling, in my opinion.”

The Dutchman matched the attacks of Mads Pedersen and then when he launched his own at Oude Kwaremont, there was no response which allowed him to ride solo to Harelbeke for another triumph. Next week he will have to face a Tadej Pogacar on the very same climbs however and the challenge may be significantly harder.

And then in Roubaix, he will meet the World Champion once again. “It’s not a big surprise of course. It was a surprise to me that he didn’t ride today. I can understand a bit better that he’s also cancelling Sunday (Gent-Wevelgem, ed.). But yes, he will definitely be an opponent in Paris-Roubaix," van der Poel knows.

He has won the cyclocross World Championships and now he's added two big wins to his short spring stint. For most riders it would have already been an absolute success, but the Dutchman will be looking to get more over the coming weeks. “Yes, but the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are the most important races for me. And those races are still to come. But you could say that my spring has been a great success so far".