"Mathieu van der Poel obviously picks his battles" - No pressure for World Champion to race Il Lombardia in search of 5 monument wins

Alpecin-Deceuninck has been rather absent from Il Lombardia, with their focus elsewhere. Away from the mountains the team thrives, and they do not put the pressure on Mathieu van der Poel to race the Italian monument - which he could aim for in the future to try and complete the whole list of monument victories. 

"Mathieu van der Poel obviously picks his battles, and when he's not around, it's tough to win a Monument," team director Michel Cornelisse told In de Leiderstrui. The team does now feature Jasper Philipsen who rode to second place at Paris-Roubaix, who could also be a prime favourite for Milano-Sanremo next year. Van der Poel is now resting up after a very long season in several disciplines, he will return to racing later in the winter likely to build up towards the cyclocross World Championships.