Spring is behind him, eyes on the summer: Van der Poel training hard in Spain for the Tour and MTB World Championships

We have to look back a bit to find the start of Van der Poel’s road season. The Dutchman, who claimed his seventh cyclocross world title this past winter, made a surprise appearance at Le Samyn. And he made it count: he dominated the Belgian spring classic, and that was just the beginning.

In Tirreno–Adriatico, the Dutchman continued to build his form, then went on to win Milan–Sanremo for the second time after a titanic battle. A few days later, he crushed the competition at the E3 Saxo Classic. In the Tour of Flanders, he had to concede to Tadej Pogacar, but at Paris–Roubaix, Van der Poel bounced back once again. After another brutal duel with Pogacar, he soloed to victory for the third straight year in the Hell of the North.

After a short break, Mathieu van der Poel is back in training, something we can see on his Instagram page. Alongside training partner Freddy Ovett, he’s been putting in the work on the Costa Blanca. The 30-year-old Dutchman is building toward his first race, which is fast approaching: on May 18, he’ll pin on a race number in Heubach, Germany, where his preparation for the mountain bike world championships begins.

And he’s doing it with one date in the back of his mind: September 14. That’s when the MTB World Championships will take place in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Van der Poel may have a golden opportunity there, as the course isn’t overly technical and demands a lot of power, exactly what the eight-time Monument winner excels at.

What Van der Poel will do between May 18 and September 14 remains largely unclear. One thing’s for sure: he’ll skip the road world championships. But he will be at the start of the Tour de France on Saturday, July 5. No doubt he has the first week of the Tour circled on his calendar, there are several stages that suit him perfectly. One in particular stands out: July 11, when the stage finishes on the Mûr-de-Bretagne, where he famously won in 2021 and paid emotional tribute to his grandfather, Raymond Poulidor.