After a successful Classics campaign last year, winning both Milano-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix,
Mathieu van der Poel’s schedule for the Spring has been confirmed by
Alpecin-Deceuninck.
The Dutchman is set to defend his titles at La Classicissima and the Hell of the North, with appearances at the E3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem ahead of the Ronde van Vlaanderen, where he has won twice in the past and finished runner-up last year behind Tadej Pogačar.
Van der Poel will also be returning to the Ardennes Classics this year, as he is scheduled to ride the Amstel Gold Race, where he famously won in dramatic fashion in 2019, which marked his breakout win on the road.
An appearance at Liège-Bastogne-Liège a week later is also on the cards, with his participation at La Doyenne still yet to be decided by the team. Van der Poel last rode there during the rescheduled 2020 season, finishing at the front of the chasing group behind the leaders in sixth place.
On his star rider’s schedule for the Spring Classics, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s general manager Philip Roodhooft said in an interview with WielerFlits that “the choices made were made together. It is logical that if someone like Mathieu wants to see what he can do there, the program will be tailored to that”.
Looking ahead to the summer and how Van der Poel’s schedule looks after Liège-Bastogne-Liège with the Olympic Games in Paris, Roodhooft said “we are now talking about spring. We currently have little impact on what comes next. Depending on how the spring goes, what happens for better or worse, we have to determine what comes next”.
