"It's been a while since I could raise my hands in the air" - Mathieu van der Poel sees spirits boosted by first win in nearly 6 months at Tour de Luxembourg

For the first time in nearly six months, Mathieu van der Poel celebrated winning a bike race on Tuesday afternoon in Luxembourg. With the 2024 World Championships looming, the confidence boosting victory could be perfectly timed too.

"It's great to win the first stage. It's been a while since I could raise my hands in the air," reflected the new Tour de Luxembourg race leader in his post-stage interview following a brutal uphill sprint that saw Van der Poel prevail ahead of Christophe Laporte and Andreas Kron. "It was fun today, it was a beautiful stage and I'm looking forward to the rest of the race."

"It's been a while since I've been here, it must have been the cyclocross world championships, where I lost," continued the Alpecin-Deceuninck leader, referencing the 2017 cyclocross worlds where Van der Poel lost out to his great rival Wout van Aert. "It was a beautiful stage and as I said the rest of the stages look tough, so I'm going to enjoy it. I'm very happy with the stage win."

It ended up being far from a perfect day for Van der Poel and Alpecin-Deceuninck however, as no fewer than three of the world champion's teammates were forced to abandon due to an illness spreading throughout the team. "I think winning stages is important. We lost some riders due to illness, we are now down to three. It will therefore be difficult to control the race. I came here to win a stage and I succeeded in the first stage so that is nice, it takes some of the pressure off for what is to come," concluded Van der Poel.