Thank you, Freddy! Will we finally be able to follow Mathieu van der Poel's Strava-content again?

Anyone who closely follows news about Mathieu van der Poel knows the drill by now: if you want to see his Strava data, you usually have to “steal” it from his training partners. The Dutchman was almost two full years completely inactive on the platform, but buddy Freddy Ovett has finally convinced him to post again. Is this the long-awaited return of Van der Poel on Strava?

Van der Poel is currently in Spain, clocking serious training hours. He’s already been spotted riding with Greg Van Avermaet and Ovett, but each time we had to rely on the data shared by his mates on Strava. That was again the case on Wednesday, when Van der Poel went out for a ride with freshly signed BEAT Cycling rider David Dekker.

The former pro of, among others, Visma | Lease a Bike and Euskaltel–Euskadi logged a training ride of almost 160 kilometres along the south coast of Spain. Van der Poel joined him on the route and was able to add another 2300 metres of climbing to his tally. They are important kilometres heading into the winter, when many expect that Van der Poel won’t wait too long before returning to cyclocross.

The world champion in road racing may be omnipresent on TV, but on Strava he hasn’t posted anything himself for almost two years. That changed on Thursday, when a new activity from the superstar suddenly appeared. This time it wasn’t a ride, but a run with Ovett. They rattled off a 10-kilometre session in just under 34 minutes, good for a blistering average pace of 3:22 per kilometre. No wonder Van der Poel smashed pretty much every personal best he had on the app.

It turns out we have Ovett to thank for this comeback. The British-Australian rider managed to convince his training friend to upload something again. Whether this marks a permanent return remains to be seen, but we can only hope we’ll soon be able to follow more of Van der Poel’s training from up close again.