Soren Kragh Andersen eager to team up with Mathieu van der Poel over 2023 spring - "Hopefully I will ride some races with him and he will ride to win"

Having left Team DSM to join Alpecin-Deceuninck for the upcoming 2023 season, Soren Kragh Andersen has expressed his excitement at getting the opportunity to race on the same team as Mathieu van der Poel.

"He is unique and one of the world's best riders," Andersen says of van der Poel in an interview with Ekstra Bladet. "Van der Poel has something special, a bit like Pogacar, Van Aert and Evenepoel. There are maybe five riders in the world who have that x-factor, and he is one of them. He is something special in the field. When you have won so many cycling races and the Tour of Flanders twice, you are something special."

One of the most loved and most exciting riders in the men's peloton today, Mathieu van der Poel has lit up numerous races in recent years both on the road and in the field of cyclocross and is part of one of cycling's fiercest rivalries with Tom Pidcock and Wout van Aert. For Andersen, the chance to get to ride alongside the Dutchman is a major opportunity. "Hopefully I will ride some races with him and he will ride to win, so I must also be at my best. I'm pretty sure if I ride up to my best, we can help each other."

Ultimately however, the ambitious Dane is planning for individual success this year. "My dream is definitely to ride finals myself. That's what I'm after and hope to be able to do in the big cycling races in the coming years," Andersen says. "I am also quite sure that my new team will teach me new things. That, I think, is quite exciting."