Will Mathieu van der Poel have surprise start to the season... Tomorrow?

Mathieu van der Poel will aim for wins at Milano-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix this spring, and for this he had decided to take a week off after the cyclocross World Championships, and then build towards a season start that would happen at Tirreno-Adriatico. However, he may get the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider back in the peloton as soon as tomorrow!

Van der Poel was set for a season start in Italy, something that had been decided a few weeks ago. He would use this week to get some race rhythm before the monuments. However, after the 'Opening Weekend', it has been reported by Wielerflits that the former World Champion may have changed his plans. We will find out this afternoon whether that is the absolute truth or not, but it was said within the Alpecin camp that he may start his season at Le Samyn instead before travelling to Italy.

Afterwards he will follow a very simplistic schedule, with Milano-Sanremo; E3 Saxo Classic to set up the preparation for the Tour of Flanders and without stepping foot in the other races; and Paris-Roubaix. He is likely to still add some races to his calendar, Amstel Gold Race being quite a good example. What we do know is he will race the Tour de France again this summer, with a first week that once again suits his skills. It was only after the route reveal that it became a logic decision, as earlier it would seem as if he could skip it this year.

His rival Tom Pidcock has recently commented on the Dutchman's mentality: "I remember one day riding at the back in the Tour and Van der Poel was just in front. I didn’t speak to him, I didn’t say anything, but I could just see from his body language that he was kind of feeling the same as me, in that ‘this is just boring, this is crap’. He wasn’t enjoying it, even though you’re in the biggest race in the world and there’s thousands of people cheering."