Niels Albert: "Van der Poel is certainly good now, but there is still room for improvement"

Mathieu van der Poel's long-awaited return to cyclocross took place this weekend in Hulst, and the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider took no time to get back to his winning ways after a disastrous last winter.

“Sunday was a training day for Van der Poel," former pro Niels Albert told Het Laatste Nieuws. "The big goal of that day wasn't to win, that was a side goal, but to get better. Everything Mathieu will do in the coming weeks, and what Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock will do, must be seen in one context: becoming world champion in Hoogerheide at the beginning of February. That is the only thing this winter is all about.”

Although Tom Pidcock has not yet decided on whether he will compete or not at the Hoogerheide World Championships, it seems unlikely as he is set to completely focus on the road spring classics. Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert however will, and their sole and main aim for this winter is to take that win in early February.

“Van der Poel is certainly good now, but there is still room for improvement. It's not that he rode two minutes away from the rest on Sunday. Laurens Sweeck came in fifteen seconds," Albert continued. Whilst the Dutchman immediately struck gold upon his return, this coming weekend in Antwerp he will come face to face with Wout van Aert who will make his debut in the off-road discipline.

However, having seen the return of van der Poel, Albert was keen on pointing out some of the aspects that had his attention throughout Sunday's race: “The best thing about Mathieu is that after two minutes of racing from the fourth row he had already moved up to fourth place. I was impressed by that."

"It means that he did everything right: brake late, accelerate quickly, take risks, force his place. That is only possible if you are mentally and physically sharp," he concluded.