Mathieu van der Poel could be a surprise addition to the Alpecin-Fenix roster for Milan-San Remo, making an early start to his season after a month building his form at an extended training camp in Spain, according to Sporza.
The team would not confirm Van der Poel’s racing schedule today or last week when it was rumoured he would race the Coppi e Bartali (March 22-26) and Dwars door Vlaanderen (March 30) to ramp up to the Tour of Flanders, a race he won in 2020 and finished second in last season behind Kasper Asgreen.
Van der Poel has slowly been ramping up his training distances and intensity, after rehabilitating his back injury. He returned to Belgium earlier this week, and his Strava posting on Thursday entitled “Getting some speed in the legs” said he completed two hours of motorpacing – a good indication he is planning to race soon.
Alpecin-Fenix issued a long list 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 varying states of health. Taminiaux made his return from a collarbone fracture at Milano-Torino on Wednesday, while Sbaragli recovered from bronchitis enough to race there, too.
Fabio van den Bossche pulled out of Friday’s Bredene Koksijde Classic, replaced by Guillaume Van Kiersbulck. Taminiaux, Simon Dehairs, Scott Thwaites, Dries De Bondt, Tim Merlier and Alexander Krieger are due to race in Belgium on Friday.
Sbaragli and Jasper Philipsen are the only riders so far confirmed to race Milan-San Remo.
Van der Poel has been plagued by back pain since last summer when he switched between road and mountain bike racing to prepare for both his Tour de France debut and the Tokyo Olympic Games. After leading the Tour de France for six days, the Dutchman dropped out of the race to head to Tokyo, where he suffered an unfortunate crash on the first lap of the cross-country race that knocked him out of the event.
The fall did not do his back any favours and he dropped out of MTB Worlds and the Benelux Tour but returned to the road late last year to win the Antwerp Port Epic and finished third in Paris-Roubaix.
After ending his cyclo-cross season in his second race in December, Van der Poel was diagnosed with swelling on a intervertebral disc. Forced to rest for the entire month of January, Van der Poel returned to light training before heading to Spain in early February, where he stayed until this week.
