Mathieu van der Poel may skip the Tour de France subsequent 12 months to allow him to deal with different main summer season objectives, together with successful the mountain bike cross-country world title within the Valais, Switzerland.
The Dutchman has endured three underwhelming editions since making his Tour debut through the Covid-hit season in 2021, wherein he took a stage win on the Mûr-de-Bretagne in Brittany and pulled on the yellow jersey.
He has did not match that very same success within the years that adopted however has flourished within the Classics. Van der Poel instructed Biking Weekly at his workforce’s winter coaching camp in Spain that he’s contemplating skipping the largest highway race of the season with the intention to flip his consideration to different accolades which have beforehand eluded him.
The 29-year-old sighed when requested in regards to the Tour subsequent 12 months, suggesting that if it was solely as much as him then his priorities would lie elsewhere within the subsequent twelve months. He additionally hinted that exterior stress from sponsors would issue into the workforce’s last determination making. The previous world champion may even skip the highway worlds in Kigali, Rwanda because of the course being tilted in the direction of climbers just like the winner in Zurich, Tadej Pogačar.
“It was additionally the identical this 12 months,” he mentioned as he made clear that he needed to overlook the Tour. “I wouldn’t thoughts doing one thing else however I additionally perceive that for our sponsors it’s additionally fairly large for them so we’ll see.
“Anyway I feel with the worlds in Kigali subsequent 12 months it’s potential to alter issues up and go for the mountain biking [world title] as a result of I gained’t have the worlds on the highway, that isn’t an enormous objective, so possibly we will do one thing like that.”
In any other case, Van der Poel’s season will stay largely unchanged with Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders being the central targets of the spring. The one distinction will probably be that he’ll journey one of many two main early-season stage races beforehand – Paris-Good or Tirreno-Adriatico – with the intention to high-quality tune his kind.
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Van der Poel’s victory on the E3 Traditional in March marked solely his second look of the season after he completed tenth at Milan-San Remo behind teammate Jasper Philipsen. The Dutchman admitted that spring this 12 months couldn’t have been a lot better however he felt having further racing miles within the legs, equally to 2023, may assist take him to a different stage as soon as extra.
“This 12 months I’d want to do Paris-Good or Tirreno-Adriatico first, a type of two I feel,” he mentioned. “I did that previously. This 12 months it was a bit tough however I’d want to have some racing within the legs earlier than the Traditional races begin.”
The previous world champion has gained two consecutive editions of Paris-Roubaix, a race which is near each his and his household’s coronary heart with their wealthy biking heritage. A 3rd would see him be part of an illustrious membership consisting of Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara and Roger De Vlaeminck, who’ve all gained the Hell of the North on three events.
Van der Poel will at all times tailor his season across the Flemish Holy Week of biking and it appears nearly inevitable {that a} third Roubaix title, to match his three victories in De Ronde, is simply across the nook.
“You simply dream and intention to win it as soon as and in case you can accomplish that then that’s tremendous cool after all,” he mentioned.
“It could be tremendous good to do it once more, but in addition the Tour of Flanders. These are the 2 I really like most and I actually take pleasure in that interval in order that they completely will probably be my primary focus once more this 12 months. It’s additionally my large energy so I don’t see why I ought to change that. They’re the races I really like most and I am good at them so I’ll attempt to do this once more this 12 months.”
