🎥 While Pogacar is summoned to Gran Canaria, Van der Poel welcomes his teammate and Red Bull buddy

It’s time for a new Mathieu van der Poel update from Spain — and indeed, it seems fitting. The 30-year-old rider of Alpecin‑Deceuninck has been spending weeks on the Costa Blanca, alternating long scenic rides with moments of relaxation. Recently, besides his usual training partners, the Dutchman got new company.

Van der Poel, who alternates hefty training sessions with time for relaxation, is obviously enjoying himself again in Spain. It's the place where he's been doing most of his training miles for the past two years, and with Ovett by his side, it's providing a lot of fun. For example, thanks to a bet we already know that Van der Poel should eventually venture into a triathlon, courtesy of 100,000 likes on a post.

But of course there is mainly serious training and (very) hard cycling. Sometimes this involves a bit of cheating, but we see Van der Poel in all the images we see passing by, especially often in his characteristic position at the head of a group. Besides Ovett, David Dekker was often there this winter, but these days we also saw other pro riders making their appearance.

Last weekend it was the turn of Jan Christen of UAE Emirates-XRG. The 21-year-old Swiss rider rode Saturday and Sunday with Ovett and Van der Poel, accompanied on Saturday by Enzo Leijnse and Nils Eekhoff of Picnic PostNL and on Sunday by Laurens Vanthoor and Mark Ynels. The Sunday session in particular was tough: Ovett recorded more than 200 kilometers on Strava.

Christen joined 134 kilometers of that. A day to remember for the young UAE climber, as it turned out. For the on Strava usually not very active Christen lovingly shared the workout on his own Strava account. The Saturday workout with the Picnic duo was missing, but obviously not by regular uploader Ovett.

On Wednesday, Ovett also posted a training session with Van der Poel, among others, in attendance. Also present: Jordi Meeus of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. In the comments, Remco Evenepoel's teammate called it "just a group of friends being together. By the way, Van der Poel wrote, "Are we still friends? But we have no idea what that's about.

Perhaps because of the entrance of Christen and consorts? Surely he comes from the team of Tadej Pogacar, soon to be Van der Poel's great rival in the classic spring. Just kidding, of course, because Van der Poel and Pogacar are also best buddies. The Slovenian is currently holed up in Gran Canaria, where he kicked off the Gran Canaria 365, a multi-day tour on one of the Canary Islands.