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Mathieu van der Poel is seeing all the pre-classics suffering he could wish for this week in a filthy, attritional, edition of Tirreno-Adriatico.
But will it be enough to get him in shape to slay Tadej Pogačar at San Remo, Flanders, and maybe even Roubaix?
Two consecutive days on the attack in the wet and wild Apennine hills – including a third-place finish Thursday – are teeing up MVDP to defend his status as the master of the northern monuments.
“It was really cold. I have not often experienced such conditions two days in a row in a race,” Van der Poel said Thursday after a second-consecutive day of sheet rain and blanket misery in Italy.
“We are here to train and grow. Such heavy efforts two days in a row is exactly what I need for the classics,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws. “Now I just have to make sure I don’t get sick.”
Van der Poel hasn’t been blowing up Strade Bianche or making cycling look like PlayStation at the UAE Tour like ol’ Pogi.
But Alpecin-Deceuninck’s centerpiece star is positioning himself as one of the two riders to beat from next Saturday’s Milan-San Remo onward.
Strade star Tom Pidcock is racing MSR but will bypass the cobblestone classics. Wout van Aert left the “opening weekend” empty-handed and with work to do.
Van der Poel feels ‘motivation, not fear’ ahead of punch-up with Pogačar
Van der Poel and Pogačar will bring their luxury watches and blinged-out supercars to a battle royale that will headline the northern classics.
Sorry WVA, Piddders, Mads Pedersen – it’s looking like only the Dutchman has the outright power and racing smarts to stop a Pogačar rout this spring.
Two close calls at Tirreno – including an audacious solo attack 5km from the line Wednesday – and a smash-mouth sprint win at Le Samyn show the 30-year-old’s reconsidered winter program is paying off.
“My altitude stimulus towards the spring is behind me,” Van der Poel told the press this weekend.
“We think it’s best to race now because my last percentages have always come from racing. That’s why we do it this way again this year, like we did in the past,” he said ahead at his pre-Tirreno press conference.
“I think it’s something that has proven to be successful, so I have to trust it.”
Mathieu van der Poel
️ “Which classic I would like to win this season? Tour of Flanders! I fell in love with that race during my first participation. But this year, Tadej Pogacar is competing. I’ll need to be in top shape to keep up with him.”
(Sporza) pic.twitter.com/W8F1c6nzQu
— Domestique (@Domestique___) February 3, 2025
Will those “percentages” be enough for MVDP to derail Pogačar’s audacious adventure into his own cobblestone backyard?
Anybody already gnashing their teeth at the prospect of another UAE Emirates-XRG blitz of the cycling season will be hoping so. Injuries to Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel increasingly tilts attention toward Van der Poel as the rider who can derail a Pogi procession through 2025.
Van der Poel knows it won’t be easy.
But unlike so many in the peloton, he won’t simply bow before Lord Pogačar.
“The time when we were shocked by how strong Pogačar is is over. If I were a kid now, I would be a fan of his,” Van der Poel said ahead of Tirreno. “It’s crazy how strong he is.
“Pogačar is the man to beat, and I realize that it will be difficult to beat him in the classics. When I was at my very best in 2023, he already dropped me in the Tour of Flanders,” he said.
“Racing him gives me motivation, but no fear. If you wake up on the day of a race and think you won’t be able to follow, you better not start.”
Clash of the classics titans
Van der Poel and Pogačar are booked in for bouts at Milan-San Remo, E3 Saxo Classic, and Tour of Flanders.
The “Hell of the North?”
We’ll see.
Pidcock, Van Aert, and Pedersen will trade turns to take outsiders’ status through the spring’s biggest races.
Van der Poel wiped the floor with a peloton devoid of Pogačar and Van Aert last year when he bulldozed through victories in Harelbeke, Flanders, and Roubaix.
Yet incredibly, it’s Pogačar who tops everybody’s betting slips this spring.
He showed in 2023 that the cobblestones of Flanders are no issue. Many believe the complexity of San Remo will prove more of a problem to him sweeping the monuments than the brutish challenge of even Roubaix’s pavé.
A grueling Ardennes-style stage Friday at Tirreno-Adriatico could give us one last clue if Van der Poel has suffered enough to spoil Pogačar’s plans.
