Strava reveals: Van der Poel’s 'Birthday Classic 🎂', Seixas’s 9-to-5 shift and a Cipressa tribute to Pogacar

Mathieu van der Poel celebrated his 31st birthday on Monday. A day earlier, he had already won the Cyclocross World Cup in Benidorm and spoke afterwards about his plans. “We’

What that long ride looked like became clear via Strava. Several of his regular training partners uploaded their rides, and the distances were impressive. Jonas Rickaert, Luke Verburg, Gianni Vermeersch and Edward Planckaert all clocked well over 200 kilometres. Planckaert added a joking caption: “Hopefully my birthday will be better…,” the Belgian wrote.re going to do a long ride, but that’s something I enjoy. And we’ll stop for a coffee along the way, which I also enjoy,” he said.

Paul Seixas was also active in Spain. The French rider of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, who won bronze at the European Championships behind Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel, is preparing for the upcoming season, with the Volta ao Algarve about a month away.

That preparation clearly involves hard work. On Thursday, Seixas completed a ride of 268.81 kilometres from Calpe. He spent a total of eight hours on the bike and climbed nearly 4,000 metres, describing the effort himself as “a real 9-to-5 job.”

Tadej Pogacar has been spotted exploring the Milan–Sanremo course. On the Poggio and the Cipressa, the Slovenian trained together with Niccolò Bonifazio, a local rider known for his descending skills.

Bonifazio paid tribute to Pogacar on social media. “We first met at the Tour of Croatia in 2018. I won the first stage and in the peloton there was already talk of a new talent developing very quickly,” he said. “Tadej is really a good guy. Often we meet without planning it, and every time we smile at each other. Sometimes we meet with a plan, but then it’s time to train or really push the bike to the limit.”

Bonifazio became known in 2019 for his spectacular descent of the Cipressa, when he attacked downhill and briefly rode away from the peloton. It did not result in a top result — he finished 131st — but it did earn him plenty of praise. He even warned fellow riders afterwards about the dangers of descending at such speed.

Will we also see Pogacar performing breakneck feats in the Cipressa descent in 2026?