Mathieu van der Poel admits he will "need some luck to win" Milano-Sanremo
CyclingMonday, 13 March 2023 at 10:00
After a somewhat underwhelming performance, by his lofty standards, at Tirreno-Adriatico, Alpecin-Deceuninck's Mathieu van der Poel is playing down his chances of victory at Milano-Sanremo.
“I already had my focus on Milan-San Remo before this Tirreno,” the reigning cyclocross world champion told Eurosport. “It was a tough racing week. I hope that gives my form the one push I need to compete for a win in San Remo. Everyone will have doubts about his form, but I did everything I could and I am healthy. I can't change it now either. You also need some luck to win in San Remo.”
Although van der Poel may have ridden Tirreno-Adriatico out of the spotlight and in support of his teammates, Alpecin-Deceuninck still had a great race. “I am very happy with the team,” said Van der Poel. “The fact that we have two victories here is very nice. I get pleasure from doing a lead-out, and if the sprinter finishes it then it makes it more beautiful. Luckily I was able to ride my own lead-out. It is also good for me to go deep in the final, especially with what is to come.”
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- True, but, Mads has a few more years of collection and his season’s tally will start levelling off whereas Jonas’ should be just starting so even if Mads overtakes him, it’s probably briefly. That now all being clear, obviously the greatest is Tony Rominger, at least that’s their most popular male cyclist, which is another way of saying he must have been great :-) Hey, sorry but if someone’s going to ask rabbit-hole questions, you can only expect rabbit-hole answers.Mistermaumau14-05-2025
- Yeah, “little guy” who already beat Groenewegen and Merlier ;-) Also love how the media overhype anything in cycling, TNT saying this was a HUGE win for the team, let’s go back to using superlatives corresponding to reality. An important win maybe but c’mon, 50 points more than second when we’re at 20000? Had the team gotten 4th 5th and 6th and missed the podium completely they’d have collected more points but NO-ONE except themselves would have written one single word about their performance. Still well done to them for proving that the stage 3 pundit criticism about the little guys was unnecessary.Mistermaumau14-05-2025
- The ranking points between Jakob Fuglsang and Jonas Vingegaard is huge, BTW.. about 6700 ranking points. Mads trails Jonas by 14 points.FredMan14-05-2025
- Greatest ever? Based on CyclingRanking.com, Rolf Sorensen is #1, Jakob Fuglsang is #2, Jonas Vingegaard is #3, and Mads Pedersen is a very close #4. If you'd rather rely on personal opinion, or favorites, or what not, it's anybody's guess.FredMan14-05-2025
- I love it when the "little guy" wins!acem8214-05-2025
- Yeah, TdF is completely overrated, only amateurs and has-beens participate. And little ole skimpy Jonas has only won it as often as Switzerland or The Netherlands or Germany and Australia combined. Prestigewise there is NO comparison until he wins either the WC again or something big coz sorry G-W is basically a 2nd rate race at their level and he’s not won much else except a decent collection of stages, which Jonas and plenty of sprinters win too. Until now, MP is about pulling level with Asgreen who also won stages and classics, was a WC and HE got himself a monument and almost as many almosts as Mads but in a career only half as long.Mistermaumau13-05-2025
- Jonas is a great rider but only rides stage races so i would have to say he & Mads are about equal now. Stage racing in general is overvalued i think... (vs the power required to win one day races)Xrider5113-05-2025
- Jonas only does stage raXrider5113-05-2025
- First goats and now great danes, all we need now is a showdown at the tour of turkey, that could maybe slide into grease. Sorry, always happens when I get tired.Mistermaumau13-05-2025
- I think this kind of thing will become quite common in future in light of the way pros have had to up their game and risk-taking. Means more precarity but also a bigger pool.Mistermaumau13-05-2025
I think one week of racing in Tirreno-Adriatico have done him good, and I also think he has deliberately held back on his efforts in the climbs to save energy in races to come. Remember he came 3rd last year and it was his first race of the season. This is mind games from MvdP to play down his own chances, but somehow I think he will release his saved energy on the Poggio!