Mathieu van der Poel’s 2024 Potential Racing Schedule

As the Alpecin-Deceuninck team already announced, Mathieu van der Poel starts his 2024 season in late December with cyclocross races. He will participate in 13 races, mainly in Belgium, but he will also be with the Netherlands, Spain, and most importantly, the Czech Republic, where this year's World Championships will be held. Mathieu van der Poel will end his cyclocross season with that race (the Worlds) on the 4th of February in Tábor.

This opinion article has been written by Lukáš Ronald Lukács.

Then, the short rest period will come, but it will not take too long, and we will see MVDP racing again. If the rumors are true, he should take part in the Strade Bianche as the first "road" race this season on the 2nd of March. Then he should take part in Tirreno-Adriatico instead of Paris Nice. Why? Paris Nice starts just a day after Strade Bianche, making it impossible for the riders taking part in Strade to start there. Tirreno-Adriatico starts on the 4th of March.

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And then the big classics are on the program of MVDP with the order Milano-Sanremo, E3 Saxo Classic, Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix. He should again skip Gent-Wevelgem as it does not suit him that much, according to his words. Alpecin Deceuninck will be counted there on Jasper Philipsen.

I wanted to say that now the bigger rest period will come with no races in two months, but then I realized one thing. MVDP showed interest in starting at some MTB races to get points for a better starting position at the Olympic XCO race. Now, it is unknown which MTB races he would like to start. But he will not take part in the Giro d’Italia.

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Then, it is almost certain that MVDP will not start in one of the two biggest stage races before the Tour de France: Criterium du Dauphiné and Tour de Suisse. There are two reasons why. First is that it would be too much for him to take part in these hard races, and the second is that he will only need a little preparation for the Tour de France as he does not plan to ride it whole.

Yes, you heard it right. Mathieu van der Poel will certainly not finish next year's Tour de France. According to rumors, he plans to ride only the first week, and then he will be preparing for the MTB XCO Olympic race. Alpecin Deceuninck will count on the Jasper Philipsen at the Tour de France. But before that, he will usually start also at the National Championships road race.

Then, after the short Tour de France, the Olympics will come. MVDP showed interest in mainly starting in the MTB discipline, but it has yet to be determined if he will also start in the road discipline. I would very much like to see MVDP going for both. If he wants to go mainly for the MTB, then okay, but why not try both? If he succeeds in both, he can write the history (again).

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MVDP then showed interest in starting at La Vuelta. It is logical for him as he already won stages at the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, and only the Spanish Grand Tour stage is missing from his palmarè to complete the Grand Tour stage trilogy. Currently, it is not known yet if he would like also to finish the whole Grand Tour or abandon at some point with the sight of the World Championships.

Then we will have the World Championships in Zürich, which suits riders who are also good at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. And these riders are Pogačar and Evenepoel. And riders like Van der Poel or Van Aert will need to climb much better than usual to think about the rainbow jersey. This will be the race where MVDP will end its road season.