Mathieu van der Poel tamed the mountains of the Tour of Flanders on Sunday April 3 to win a second time. A victory that the grandson of Raymond Poulidor did not imagine after being handicapped all winter by a recurring back pain following his heavy fall during the Olympic mountain bike event last summer in Tokyo.
Mathieu van der Poel, winner on Sunday April 3 for the second time of the Tour of Flanders, also distinguished himself in cyclo-cross and mountain biking. During the Olympic Games in Japan last summer, a violent fall had put him on the mat. Here he is already at the front of the pelotons.
Central character of the Flemish classics
“ I know where I came from with this back injury. I was not even sure, a few weeks ago, of being able to run this Tour of Flanders “, confessed the one who wore the Yellow Jersey of the Tour de France for six days for his first participation in 2021.
In 2019, the Dutchman had discovered the Tour of Flanders with a promising fourth place, despite a big fall 60km from the finish which had forced him into a great solo pursuit. Last Wednesday, he had already made his opponents doubt by winning the semi-classic Through Flanders with ease.
Quadruple cyclo-cross world champion, van der Poel (27), central character of the Flemish classics now has two victories in a “monument”, the name of the biggest one-day races. Last year, he had not digested his defeat in a two-man sprint against the Dane Kasper Asgreen. A perfectionist, he hates staying on a failure and gets his revenge.
Expected in Roubaix
From now on, the grandson of Raymond Poulidor is one of the favorites of the next “Hell of the North” on April 17, the third of the five “monuments” of the season. ” Paris-Roubaix? I will first take advantage of this victory in the Tour of Flanders he dodged. Last year, Mathieu van der Poel took third place, beaten in the sprint by the Italian Sonny Colbrelli. Van der Poel, who was taking part in his first “Queen of the Classics”, spoke of a race ” to never forget “.
Mathieu van der Poel returned to competition on the occasion of the first “monument” of 2022: Milan-San Remo, on March 19. And he took third place behind Slovenian Matej Mohoric and Frenchman Anthony Turgis for his first day of racing in 2022.
A cheeky young man, Mathieu van der Poel climbs the stairs four by four, and turns almost everything he touches into gold. In two weeks of racing, Mathieu van der Poel, winner of a stage in the international Coppi-Bartali week in Italy, is already in orbit. At the end of December, after his second cyclo-cross of the winter, he had to take a break due to back pain. His return, which seemed complicated, turned into a real health journey.