Mathieu van der Poel might be a shock addition to the Alpecin-Fenix roster for Milan-San Remo, making an early begin to his season after a month constructing his kind at an prolonged coaching camp in Spain, based on Sporza.
The group wouldn’t affirm Van der Poel’s racing schedule as we speak or final week when it was rumoured he would race the Coppi e Bartali (March 22-26) and Dwars door Vlaanderen (March 30) to ramp as much as the Tour of Flanders, a race he gained in 2020 and completed second in final season behind Kasper Asgreen.
Van der Poel has slowly been ramping up his coaching distances and depth, after rehabilitating his again harm. He returned to Belgium earlier this week, and his Strava posting on Thursday entitled “Getting some velocity within the legs” mentioned he accomplished two hours of motorpacing – an excellent indication he’s planning to race quickly.
Alpecin-Fenix issued an extended listing of sick or injured riders on Tuesday, with Lionel Taminiaux, Oscar Riesebeek, Sjoerd Bax, Eddie Anderson, Sam Gaze, Jasper Philipsen, Kristian Sbaragli, Jonas Rickaert, Jay Vine and Alex Bogna all in various states of well being. Taminiaux made his return from a collarbone fracture at Milano-Torino on Wednesday, whereas Sbaragli recovered from bronchitis sufficient to race there, too.
Fabio van den Bossche pulled out of Friday’s Bredene Koksijde Basic, changed by Guillaume Van Kiersbulck. Taminiaux, Simon Dehairs, Scott Thwaites, Dries De Bondt, Tim Merlier and Alexander Krieger are resulting from race in Belgium on Friday.
Sbaragli and Jasper Philipsen are the one riders up to now confirmed to race Milan-San Remo.
Van der Poel has been affected by again ache since final summer time when he switched between highway and mountain bike racing to organize for each his Tour de France debut and the Tokyo Olympic Video games. After main the Tour de France for six days, the Dutchman dropped out of the race to go to Tokyo, the place he suffered an unlucky crash on the primary lap of the cross-country race that knocked him out of the occasion.
The autumn didn’t do his again any favours and he dropped out of MTB Worlds and the Benelux Tour however returned to the highway late final yr to win the Antwerp Port Epic and completed third in Paris-Roubaix.
After ending his cyclo-cross season in his second race in December, Van der Poel was identified with swelling on a intervertebral disc. Pressured to relaxation for the complete month of January, Van der Poel returned to gentle coaching earlier than heading to Spain in early February, the place he stayed till this week.
