Wout van Aert on Mathieu van der Poel: "I'm glad he's getting better"

Eternal rivals Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel know each other better than most people, and are friends off the bike. With the expectations put on the Dutch to return to competition in time for the classics, after dealing with extensive back issues, Wout van Aert was asked about his rival's current situation.

“It didn't have to happen that quickly,” Van Aert said on the likely return of Mathieu van der Poel just in time for the classics, with a joking tone.

“No, I'm glad he's getting better. His return was imminent. We could all see that he was training hard. I hope things go well for him. It will immediately be someone we have to take into account," he added. Van der Poel has been training for over a month on the Spanish coast and has hinted he was getting the form necessary to be competitive in the coming months.

“If he has the legs in that stage race in Italy, he can immediately show something. It's a positive story, I think." By that, van Aert is referring to the rumours that have emerged yesterday that Mathieu van der Poel's return may be at the Italian Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in late March. Despite colliding with some of the cobbled classics, it is understood he will be looking for racing kilometers in the five-day stage-race before traveling to Belgium where he will ride the Dwars door Vlaanderen right before the Tour des Flandres, which should be his first big goal of the season.

Van Aert is currently in Paris-Nice where he has won the stage four time-trial and has played a pivotal role in the team's wildly successful stage one raid. He was leading the race at yesterday's stage to Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut but has switched off very early on, likely not wanting to repeat last year's brutal efforts at Tirreno-Adriatico which he said cost him in the spring classics.