Thijs Zonneveld pleased to see "sprinter" Mathieu van der Poel triumph at Le Samyn: "It has been a while since we saw this version of him"

It was quite surprising when Mathieu van der Poel decided to start his season already at Le Samyn on Tuesday. But the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider knew why he chose this particular race with a final sprint placed on a cobbled uphill drag.

At first, Van der Poel tried to win solo with attacks far from the finish. But since both attempts got neutralized, he switched to a plan B: "After those attacks you didn't see him at all anymore," said Thijs Zonneveld in the In het Wiel podcast. "He was attentive and on the only difficult part in the final lap he was piloted to the front. That was a perfect lead-out by Timo Kielich. I thought: now he's gone, but he stayed."

Zonneveld actually thought that Van der Poel did not have very good legs. "But then you got that sprint... It goes uphill there and that is to his advantage. It is a sprint of: who has something left? And he actually does quite a few things wrong in the sprint, because he was quickly in the wind. He knows that too, but it does not bother him."

Compared to the rest, Van der Poel simply had a lot more left in his tank. "He doesn't look up or around, and that while he's riding to the finish with Magnier. He knows how fast Magnier is. He's certainly not the least on such a finish, but if you see the sprint, it wouldn't have made a damn difference who he had sprinted against."

Zonneveld believes we saw a kind of Van der Poel that seemed almost extinct in recent years. "It's been a while since he sprinted against riders who can win a bunch sprint on paper. Maybe the Giro 2022, and before that the Tirreno 2021. This bodes well for the classics, but also with an eye on the Tour de France."

Where Van der Poel had few chances in France last year, this year is different. "In the first week you have arrivals that require the same effort. I am very curious about that. It has been a while since we saw this version of him. He's raising his finger to race and is really racing to win. He's in a very good position. Van der Poel is still yet to race against Tadej Pogacar, but he really has an advantage over the others."