Mathieu van der Poel steps up Tour de France preparations at La Plagne

For the fourth time in his career, Mathieu van der Poel will take on the Tour de France later this month. With the 2024 Tour now just a matter of weeks away, the Rainbow Jersey is stepping up his preparations alongside his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates.

Training hard at La Plagne in the French Alps, van der Poel joined teammate Jonas Rickaert for a ride as showcased by the 30-year-old Belgian's official Strava account afterwards. The world champion and his domestique took on just over 60km, totalling 2,227km of elevation gain and being covered in a time of just under two hours and forty minutes.

Last year's Green Jersey winner at the Tour de France, Jasper Philipsen was also present with the Alpecin-Deceuninck squad at La Plagne. Sadly for the Belgian, who managed to secure himself four stage wins alongside his points classification victory at the 2023 edition of the Tour de France, Philipsen's attempts at training rides have been affected by Mother Nature.

As shown via the official Instagram story of the 26-year-old, the Snow in the French Alps was giving Philipsen a little difficulty on his training rides. "Guess we're taking the skis today!" he captions a picturesque image of the pure snow and fog at La Plagne.

“This is the most logical choice to be able to prepare for my goals without time pressure,” van der Poel said recently of his plans for a busy summer that sees the Rainbow Jersey take on the Tour de France and the Olympic Games. “The combination with MTB was too difficult. But who knows, maybe in LA ‘28 I can focus on mountain biking. My ambition for the Tour de France? I hope like last year to assist teammate Jasper Philipsen in his hunt for stage wins and a possible green jersey. And the goal is to also win a stage myself this year.”