VIDEO | Mathieu van der Poel spotted doing a climbing lead-out in training - Are Alpecin preparing a new talent?

In Spain, Mathieu van der Poel is training for the start of his 2025 season. We will see the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider racing for the first time on the road at Tirreno-Adriatico, but Alpecin-Deceuninck may have plans of deploying another leader in Sam Gaze, as van der Poel was spotted giving the Kiwi a leadout during training.

This took place on the famous Coll de Rates, however not the side where Tadej Pogacar got a leadout and KOM during the month of December. Instead, the Tarbena vertent - where recently Filippo Ganna showed his good form - was the target of the Alpecin-Deceuninck duo.

And surprisingly, the KOM has been beaten by a whole 16 seconds. Mathieu van der Poel put himself on display to work for this teammate and the results are rather surprising. Samuel Gaze is not an unknown in the cycling world, he has in the past won the Short Track Mountain Bike World Championships on two occasions and in 2023 he was second to Tom Pidcock in the XCO event.

However the New Zealander has never really achieved meaningful results on the road, where his contract with Alpecin allows him to switch disciplines like many of his teammates. But his power numbers are insane, as he averaged over 500 watts for a period of around 10 minutes. Not just pure power, Gaze effectively took the KOM on the climb (which although not too steep, is still a difficult challenge).

Gaze hasn't raced since early October where he took part in his final MTB events, and he will start off his season most likely at Le Samyn at the beginning of March. It will be interesting to see if he will get a leadership position in the Belgian team, and if he can perhaps also perform in other terrains besides the classics as he shows a tremendous ability to ride a strong consistent effort.