"Now I no longer feel the need to share that" - Mathieu van der Poel makes conscious effort to not reveal Strava data

Before adding another famous win to his already impressive palmares at Milano-Sanremo, Mathieu van der Poel was considered by many a dark horse rather than an outright favourite due in part to the lack of data available on his training. Something he has made a conscious effort to not reveal.

"I had decided for myself to share it for a year because I received comments left and right that nothing was known about my training," van der Poel revealed following his Milano-Sanremo win. "Now I no longer feel the need to share that. Other riders do, but most colleagues do not add heart rate or power and then it is not much use, because you can't see anything."

One person who agrees with the Dutchman's tactics of not showing all his available data is Sporza analyst José De Cauwer. In a preview to Milano-Sanremo, he said the following. "I think we haven't seen everything from Mathieu van der Poel yet . An extra week can do a lot. I would definitely put him among the candidate winners for Milan-Sanremo."

Following van der Poel's win De Cauwer was quick to call the people who judge riders based solely on Strava. "And now I read a lot about Strava again: as if you have to prove on that platform that you are ready to win a race and that you must necessarily show the rest how good you are," he says. "I wouldn't put any data on Strava myself either. Why not? Why? Why do football teams train behind closed doors?"