Mathieu van der Poel: "I felt good today and enjoyed myself"

Alpecin-Fenix has gotten another win today as Mathieu van der Poel stormed to a strong win at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. The Dutchman is getting ready for the cobbled classics in Italy, and seems to be in the right place to challenge Jumbo-Visma.

“I had a big gap after the descent of the long climb and then I got to the leading group. It was a nice lead, but they closed it. Then I focused on the sprint. I tried to recover a bit and I felt I still had the legs to do a good sprint," van der Poel said in a post-race interview.

After being active on the first day, van der Poel struggled in the mountainous days in the Appennines. Today was a day suited to the puncheurs better, and van der Poel attacked early with the intent of taking a solo win wih 60 kilometers to go. He grew a gap of almost two minutes, caught the breakaway but was later reeled in by the peloton with 10 kilometers to go. Still, he had the legs to contest the sprint and ended up taking what was his first win of the year.

“I felt good today and enjoyed myself. This is the way I like to race. Will I never give up? No, at least that's what I try. I don't know how tomorrow will go. It remains to be seen how I feel after this effort," he concluded.

Tomorrow van der Poel has one more chance to grab a stage win, before travelling back to Belgium where he will be racing Dwars door Vlaanderen and Tour des Flandres next week, seemingly close to his best form.