Van der Poel's coach hints at Pogacar being top favourite to win 2025 World Championships: "He is the top favourite, that is for sure"

Koos Moerenhout, national coach for the Netherlands, has just over a year ago guided Mathieu van der Poel to a World title in Glasgow. Recently, he made the trip to Rwanda where the 2025 Worlds will take place and has shared his thoughts on the course, van der Poel's chances and why Tadej Pogacar is the main favourite in his opinion.

"I was pleasantly surprised by Rwanda. At the front, you mainly see the obstacles that come with it: the vaccinations, a long journey, the weather conditions, the hotels, the roads and so on. But it was all good, so we were really happy with that," Moerenhout shared with In de Leiderstrui.

"Rwanda is called the land of a thousand hills, and I understand why. There really isn’t a flat meter. It will be a very nice World Championships, I’m not afraid of that. I don’t expect any organizational problems," he says, something that has been feared quite a bit recently. The logistics will definitely be a big challenge, which the Dutchman does not deny.

"It will be an expensive trip, that much is clear. Everything has to be flown there, so that is different from being within Europe. With the equipment and everything else, it does add up. Towards the World Championships next year, it is a shame that various countries have to see if they can go with a full group," he warns.

With several national teams already not filling in all their spots for the World Championships as it is, and for example even the Great Britain opted out of the European Championships for similar reasons, it could mean a tough hit for the startlists in the first World Championships that will take place in Africa. "If that is at the expense of the juniors and promises, then that is not a good thing. That is not exclusively a Dutch problem, because every country will have its challenges here".

However regarding the actual roads and course, Moerenhout did not see any obvious issue, only a difficult course that will be quite hard for everyone present. "The roads are good. It is a compact World Championship, but on a difficult circuit. There is a difficult climb of eight hundred meters, which starts from a golf course. Then there is another climb over cobblestones".

"There is no climb in that section that you would say a classic rider cannot survive, but it is mainly the combination and the rapid succession of climbs," he details, similarly to the cobbled classics. "There is also an extension loop, with a seriously difficult climb of six kilometers. That also includes the Mur de Kigali, which will provide fantastic images on those cobblestones". All-in-all, a course that on paper suits the classics specialists, but the distance will tilt it more towards the climbers who will need to perform after hours of difficult terrain.

"Ultimately you end up with more than five thousand meters of altitude and that is always going to weigh. That is a thousand more than in Zurich, but in the end the riders make the race. Although of course the climbers have the advantage. I can imagine that it is paralyzing for some riders when Pogacar participates, but the race still has to be ridden," he says, before hinting that the Slovenian has a suiting course once again to renew the rainbow jersey. "Last year, everything he touched turned to gold, but that can also be different. On a course like the one in Rwanda, he is the top favourite, that is for sure".

As for van der Poel, who has already hinted before that he may skip the trip, Moerenhout says: "It is not impossible for a good classic rider, but the most important thing is that he sees it himself. In combination with all the other things he does in one year. If he wants to go for Rwanda, he will have to make a number of choices. It is a course on which he will not be the top favourite, but on which the ball has to fall in the right direction".