‘A promise is a promise’ — Mathieu van der Poel posts first public Strava ride since 2023

Mathieu van der Poel posted a public Strava ride on Thursday for the first time since January 2023. The Dutchman from Alpecin-Premier Tech is currently on a training camp with his team ahead of the Tour of Switzerland and the Tour de France, where — judging by the title of his file — he kept a promise.

Van der Poel rode 193 kilometres at a brisk average of 39.5 kilometres per hour. Along the way, he and his group tackled the Coll de Rates and other well-known climbs on the Spanish coast from the Syncrosfera hotel of Alexander Kolobnev.

He did so alongside Jonas Rickaert, Silvan Dillier and Tim Marsman, among others. The Dutchman also took a few KOMs, including on La Fustera: an official segment on the Alto de la Fustera, a climb of 4 kilometres at just under 5 per cent.

Van der Poel did that segment in 7 minutes and 3 seconds, which was significantly quicker than the previous KOM held by Decathlon CMA CGM rider Pierre Gautherat, whose time was 7 minutes and 21 seconds. Hector Alvarez, Quinn Simmons, Greg Van Avermaet and Romain Grégoire also feature in the top ten.

Van der Poel had already been off public Strava for some time. The title of his file was therefore: a promise is a promise. What promise exactly? That is, of course, a question for Van der Poel to know, and for us to find out.

The Dutchman stopped publicly posting his bike rides in January 2023, though he did make one brief exception in November. Then MVDP ran 10 kilometres in 33 minutes and also uploaded a Zwift ride. “Is this my Strava comeback?”, he jokingly wrote at the time as the title of his 10,000-metre run. So he knows only too well that people like to keep an eye on him!