We still have to wait a while for the first matches between Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutchman will make his entrance in Milan-San Remo next Saturday, but Van Aert will not be present there.
We will therefore have to wait an extra week until the E3 Saxo Bank Classic before we will have a first battle. At Alpecin-Deceuninck they are convinced that Van der Poel will be fine, despite the fact that he has had a long cross winter.
“Two years ago, Mathieu came back from injury. Now his preparation will be complete. That’s another story. We believe that Mathieu can certainly prepare himself as well as he can with training for the races that await him,” says Christophe Roodhooft at HLN.
Well-known recipe
Moreover, it is not a new fact for Van der Poel, and in recent years it has always turned out well. “We’ve been doing it this way for years now. In the past, whenever he returned from height, or after a break, he won eight out of ten times. That is also why this approach seemed like a good idea to us.”
Father Adrie also states that Mathieu will be at the same level. “He needed a longer rest period after the winter. He now had three weeks longer to build up. His condition will now be even more stable than last year, even slightly better.”
