OFFICIAL: Mathieu van der Poel leads Alpecin at Le Samyn to start 2025 season
Cycling
Mathieu van der Poel was initially supposed to start his season at Tirreno-Adriatico but there has been a change of plans. This past Sunday Jasper Philipsen took the team's first win, and now they will be absolute favourites to win Le Samyn as the cyclocross and gravel World Champion has been announced as part of the lineup.
After this weekend's racing, the rumour surged strongly and now the Belgian team has confirmed early in the eve of Le Samyn that van der Poel will be racing - his first road event since the road race World Championships.
Van der Poel will likely be the leader for the Belgian race, which will have the likes of Paul Magnier and Arnaud De Lie at the start line as other big favourites. He will be backed up with Samuel Gaze who he had been training with recently, as well as Timo Kielich who could be another outsider. Stan Van Tricht, Lennert Belmans, Simon Dehairs and Sente Sentjens complete the lineup.
Alpecin-Deceuninck for Le Samyn:
Mathieu van der Poel
Lennert Belmans
Simon Dehairs
Samuel Gaze
Timo Kielich
Sente Sentjens
Stan Van Tricht
🎙️ Mathieu van der Poel: "If the itch gets too strong, you just have to race!"
— Alpecin-Deceuninck Cycling Team (@AlpecinDCK) March 3, 2025
A surprise addition to the lineup for @GPSamyn. None other than @mathieuvdpoel will be at the start of this Belgian semi-classic tomorrow! His first road race this season 🚴♂️🔥
Check out our full… pic.twitter.com/vD5cRROcJY
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- Are you drunk? Every one agrees Mads has never been more slim (look at his climbin)g and this maybe takes the top of his sprintUpHill16-04-2025
- Eli was attacked by a guy wearing a Belgian scarf, was that the intoxication effect?Mistermaumau16-04-2025
- Exactly, and with Mads in the running, a quartet would have been formed, TP and MVDP would have had to exhaust themselves more to shake off both Mads and Jasper although MVDP could have played his lead-out role for Jasper again (remember, it was he who broke Jasper, not Tadej and I don’t think Tadej would have risked countless attacks noticing an unbudging MVDP (who’d constantly pull Jasper with him without Jasper having to go into the red)). Any of the possible scenarios would NOT have favoured Tadej and in a 4-way sprint at the end his most likely place would then have been 4th. In the end he can count himself quite fortunate with his 2nd. Don’t think there’s a market for games for budding cycling team managers managers, so let’s just stop the ifs and buts, if MVDP hadn’t been ill at Flanders, if Jonas hadn’t crashed before the last Tour, if Primoz hadn’t underestimated Tadej on the Planche des Belles Filles, if, if if works both ways.Mistermaumau16-04-2025
- For a moment there my brain registered Patrick L.Mistermaumau16-04-2025
- Tadej, STUPOR MUNDI.
maria2024202416-04-2025 - Why the random and unnecessary disrespect to Cadel? At least he didn't cheat like Contador.Pogboom16-04-2025
- If we're playing the "what if" game - I'd go further back to Mads getting a puncture and possibly being a favourite to win the race. He would have likely beat Tadej and MVDP in a sprint at the Velodrome. He appeared to be one of the stronger riders who faced some bad luck. But, that's just cycling. Wout could have very well won Paris-Roubaix in 2023 if he hadn't punctured in the last 10km. I wish Tadej hadn't crashed or would've caught up so all these stories of how Tadej should have won wouldn't exist, I think MVDP was the stronger rider in this particular race.JBlake16-04-2025
- There might be some truth to Visma's psychology being hurt by last year's crashes. But, definitely - Itzulia was a boycott because of the Organizer's and comments made by them this year again proves it is necessary. The crash profoundly changed the course of the season for several of the top riders, yet they got blamed for not being careful, going too fast, or. not knowing the roads enough.JBlake16-04-2025
- Someone else may be able to give better local context, but I don't think these type of incidents only happen to MVDP - although, it does seem to happen more often to him. Eli Iserbyt had beer thrown at him earlier this year, or Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard had chips thrown in their face during last year's Tour de France. The common theme is alcohol between most incidents, combined with being outdoors for a prolonged period of time. MVDP is also not very well-liked by many Belgian fans for his success, particularly against a rider like Wout. It's likely a combination of today's society, alcohol, some dislike towards the rider, and just being stupid. Hopefully real consequences might dissuade others from doing similar things.JBlake16-04-2025
- Yeah, but MVDP actually isn't. If Pog goes up the road, it is his responsibility to run it down, and everyone knows he has the most to lose. It's just rare that anyone calls him on it.acem8216-04-2025