Mathieu van der Poel training for his first race of the season Milano Sanremo in Pego, Alicante. 💪🏼 📷: Manuel Ferrer
"We will be at the start on Saturday with expectations" - Alpecin-Deceuninck confident of positive season opener for Mathieu van der Poel at Milano-Sanremo
CyclingTuesday, 12 March 2024 at 16:00
On the 16th of March, world champion Mathieu van der Poel makes his hotly-anticipated return to road racing at Milano-Sanremo. Although the first race of a season is always a question mark, Alpecin-Deceuninck are confident in their star.
"With what we know today, we are satisfied with Mathieu's level of form," team boss Christoph Roodhooft explains openly in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad. After another dominant winter that saw van der Poel reclaim his Cyclocross World Championship title, the Dutchman has certainly not forgotten how to win his races.
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"And so it is logical that we will be at the start on Saturday with expectations. We do not fear a lack of competitive rhythm," Roodhooft declares optimistically. "Two years ago he also started his road season in Milan-Sanremo and finished third. After he'd come off of injury and it was only decided on Thursday to let him start as a replacement for the sick Gianni Vermeersch."
With Tadej Pogacar also present at the first monument of the season though, van der Poel is unlikely to have it all his own way. "It is a very difficult match to win, also for Van der Poel. But fortunately that applies to everyone. So we have a chance," Roodhooft assesses, noting how Pogacar's presence could actually be a positive for his leader. "If riders of that caliber are alone in a peloton, then all the weight of the race falls on them and their team. As soon as two or more real top players are at the start, the race starts and the race becomes much easier in which they can effectively win the race."
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- Funnier: this website keeps giving credo to their ramblings. In this case, why in any possible way would Boonen want to create a fantasy world to attach himself to these two clowns when more likely he would want to forget he was even there? Laughable.EricJensenRidesBikes26-12-2024
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- Rowe spent his whole career on one team being nothing more than a thug for Skyneos. I have no idea why another team would want import this type of person into their program.Sweep26-12-2024
- “CyclingUpToDate would like to extend it's condolences to family and friends of Pascal.” Paging a copy editor….menk26-12-2024
- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024