Mathieu van der Poel acknowledges imminent struggles: "E3 is going to be tough, with the wind and the rain"

After winning Milan-San Remo, Mathieu van der Poel returns to race the E3 Saxo Bank Classic today with the idea of taking another victory in a very different race where the weather conditions will be decisive.

"Yes, we are proud of what we did as a team in San Remo, but today is a different race, San Remo is something special, the E3 is going to be tough, with the wind and the rain, it's going to be tough," van der Poel told CyclingPro.net this morning at the start in Harelbeke.

The Dutchman was questioned about the rivals he fought with in San Remo, but Mathieu believes that in this race, because of its characteristics, there will be many more: "Today there will be more riders who will be ahead at the end of the race, as I said it's a different race, we are starting from scratch".

The Dutchman will be one of the main favourites, alongside Tadej Pogacar and several riders of Jumbo-Visma. It'll be a tough challenge, but the most similar to the Tour des Flandres where he will look to defend his title. "I've only raced here once but it's like a little Flanders but even harder because all the critical sectors take place very quickly, which makes it so hard," he concluded.