Mathieu van der Poel’s summer time race schedule has been introduced by Alpecin-Deceuninck, with a stage win and supporting sprinter Jasper Philipsen on the Tour de France and Paris Olympics street race set as his two key targets.
The street World Champion gained’t take part within the Olympic cross-country mountain bike occasion as he had initially deliberate, with it putting an excessive amount of time strain on his different objectives.
“After cautious consideration, the choice has been made. No mountain biking, however full deal with the mix Tour de France – Olympic street race,” learn an Instagram put up from Alpecin-Deceuninck.
The Olympic MTB males’s occasion takes place on Monday, July 29, simply eight days after the ultimate stage of the Tour de France in Nice and solely 5 days earlier than the street race in Paris.
“This is probably the most logical selection to have the ability to put together for my objectives with out time strain,” Van der Poel mentioned. “The mixture with MTB was too troublesome. But who is aware of, possibly in LA ‘28 I can deal with mountain biking.”
At the Tour de France, Van der Poel will as soon as once more be on dash lead-out responsibility for Jasper Philipsen, probably the most profitable sprinter from the 2023 Tour with 4 wins, with the World Champion being key to 2 of these wins.
“My ambition for the Tour de France? I hope, like final 12 months, to help teammate Jasper Philipsen in his hunt for stage wins and a potential inexperienced jersey,” mentioned Van der Poel.
The Dutchman additionally used the Tour as preparation for the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow the place he took a memorable win in Scotland regardless of crashing on moist roads. The related time hole between the Tour and Olympic street race in 2024 will give Van der Poel nice confidence.
But it gained’t simply be about preparation for Paris whereas he’s in France as Van der Poel, a former Tour de France stage winner and yellow jersey wearer, is raring to get again within the wins.
“The purpose is to additionally win a stage myself this 12 months,” mentioned Van der Poel, whose one Tour win got here in emotional vogue on stage 2 of the 2021 version when he powered twice up the Mûr-de-Bretagne and took the maillot jaune.
Van der Poel has kicked on from his greatest street season in 2023 and regarded extra dominant than ever this 12 months, with lengthy solo wins on the E3 Saxo Classic, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Philipsen was second to Van der Poel at Roubaix for the second successive season and likewise contributed to Alpecin-Deceuninck’s near-perfect Monument report in 2024 with the win at Milan-San Remo.
He was closely aided by Van der Poel on that day to chase down Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and all the late attackers on the Via Roma. They’ll be hoping for extra success when the Tour kicks off on June 29 in Florence.
The Belgian quick man was additionally introduced for the Baloise Belgium Tour between June 12-16 and the Belgian nationwide championships on June 23.