While Del Grosso heads out with buddy Ovett, Van der Poel trains with Red Bull and Evenepoel

Del Grosso established himself this winter as one of the riders most capable of pushing Van der Poel in the mud. A silver medal at the World Championships was the reward for a strong campaign, during which the young Dutchman also collected multiple World Cup podiums and won the Dutch national cyclo-cross title.

On the road, the 22-year-old already enjoyed a successful debut season at WorldTour level with Alpecin-Premier Tech: podium finishes in races such as Dwars door het Hageland and the Tour of Catalonia, plus his first professional victory in the Tour of Turkey. This year, Del Grosso will be aiming to take another step towards the very top — and in his build-up, he has already teamed up with a familiar face.

Together with Ovett, Del Grosso completed a steady gravel ride of 92 kilometres at an average speed of 25 km/h. Nothing wild, but it would be no surprise if we see more of this duo in the coming weeks. And what was Van der Poel doing at the same time? Well… he appeared to have found an even more eye-catching group to train with.

On that same Wednesday, Van der Poel was suddenly spotted riding with part of the Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe squad. A photo of the Dutchman surrounded by Red Bull riders appeared on X. Evenepoel was not in the photo, but according to reports, the Belgian was riding around five minutes behind the group containing Van der Poel.

That, however, is not a reason for Evenepoel fans to worry. The double Olympic champion is said to have been doing a different type of training session. And seeing Van der Poel alongside Red Bull riders is hardly a shock: he has trained with riders like Jordi Meeus, Danny van Poppel and the Van Dijke brothers before.