OFFICIAL: Mathieu van der Poel leads Alpecin at Le Samyn to start 2025 season

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