🇧🇪 #GrandPrixdeWallonie22 Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2022 Grand Prix de Wallonie and the ruler of the Citadelle de Namur: Mathieu van der Poel! 🥇
Mathieu van der Poel to race Primus Classic before travelling to Worlds - "I don't know if I'm at the favorites level"
CyclingFriday, 16 September 2022 at 01:00
Mathieu van der Poel is on his way to the World Championships, but before making the travel to Australia he has decided to take part in the Primus Classic to further prime his form ahead of the big race.
“The hard work is done. I don't really need these race anymore, but such a Citadel an Namen [where the GP de Wallonie ended] is just a bit different than going deep in training. That race hardness, that's what I do it for," he told Het Nieuwsblad after winning the Belgian classic. Van der Poel has had little racing after the Tour de France, but this Wednesday's win showed he was on track for the Worlds where he will have good chances of succeeding.
Read also
“I'm not going to hide. I don't know if I'm at the favorites level because I haven't really raced against them anymore," he said however. He will not directly face the likes of Wout van Aert, Tadej Pogacar and Julian Alaphilippe in the run-up to the next week, but he's gotten other references to eye out: "Girmay was otherwise good in Canada and he drove here too. Maybe that's a reference."
His change of plans also seen him change his travel plans, but to little difference. “I have changed my flight to be able to fly in business. That is a small investment, but it makes a difference if you can get off that plane fresher. So let's try that," he concluded.
Read also
claps 0visitors 222
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Most of these have nothing to do with rider safety or are completely unachievablevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Depends on how fast the Cipressa would be beforehand and in what condition Philipsen would bevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Some things sound crazy until they aren't, what if he's actually right? 🤷vappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Why make a comment to state the obvious? Of course MvdP is much better at CX than Pogacar, does anyone doubt that But that wasn't his pointvappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- If you look at road alone obvi Pogacar is the better rider. But maybe MVDP is the better overall rider since he can win in three plus disciplines?mobk23-12-2024
- Correction on 2021 Olympics. It was mainly the Dutch ladies who didn’t know who was leading the race. Other teams like the Germans and Italians knew that Kiesenhofer was out front.mobk23-12-2024
- A champion turning into a sore loser. Or is he on coke again?
UltimateOpportunist23-12-2024 - If you look at the major races they’ve both been in, van der Poel had the early edge as lately Pogacar has had the advantage. It’s all on procyclingstats.RidesHills23-12-2024
- I wouldn’t assume Tadej can’t win at cross. He did a cross race, not a World Cup, a few years ago and crushed the field. It was a minor race. But he can win anywhere.mij23-12-2024
- I wonder what would happen if Pogacar attacked on the Cipressa instead of the Poggio in San Remo? Would MvdPoel still be able to follow?Ride197423-12-2024