However, there’s a glint in his eye that suggests he always has something up his sleeve. I don't think it makes sense to throw too much energy away during the Tour, but for sure I won't hold back too much either.So what’s his secret? Rob is thickset, which, along with his shaved head, gives him the look of an East End bouncer rather than the boss of an innovative bike company. "I want to make a good Tour like the Giro last year. For sure it's time to finish it," he smiled. "Paris is the last stop before the Worlds. I think we're going to have a strong team."ĭespite his focus on the Glasgow Worlds, Van der Poel confirmed his intention to complete the Tour, even if he insisted he would not make a target of the green jersey. "It's the first year I'm coming in with a really good preparation, without other things to think about, so I'm actually looking forward to doing my best Tour. "I'm motivated to do a good Tour," Van der Poel said. Last year, on the other hand, the Dutchman arrived at the Tour already exhausted from his exertions at the Giro d'Italia and he pulled out on stage 11. In 2021, Van der Poel claimed victory on stage 2 and held the maillot jaune for a week before abandoning to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics. This will be Van der Poel's third Tour de France, with his previous two appearances ending in early withdrawals, albeit for very different reasons. I think it also gets me to a different level." It's good for me sometimes to have a good block of training. "In the past, maybe we did sometimes a bit too much racing, just a bit unprepared sometimes, going from race to race. I raced already a lot in my life and now I make sure it counts when I'm on the start line. I think I feel good with the preparation I do now. But it's part of modern cycling, I guess. It's hard if you crash, because it means you've done a long preparation for nothing, basically. "But now I'm really eager to go racing again. "If it turns out to be successful like the Spring Classics, then for sure it's nice," Van der Poel said. At 28 years of age and after nursing a back injury for the past two years, Van der Poel has – perhaps reluctantly – begun to appreciate the value of such patience. Such lengthy training camps have marked a change of pace for Van der Poel, who had toggled between disciplines and bounced from race to race for much of the early part of his career. Those successes seemed to vindicate the philosophy of his Alpecin-Deceuninck squad, who had privileged training over racing in the early season by hot-housing their Classics unit at a training camp in Denia, an approach they have replicated ahead of the Tour. Van der Poel can approach his summer campaign in a relaxed frame of mind having already triumphed in winter, when he claimed his fifth cyclocross world title, and in spring, when he landed both Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix either side of placing second behind Tadej Pogacar in a tumultuous edition of the Tour of Flanders. If I want to go there, then for sure I have to go mountain biking." Tour de France “It’s a bit of a gamble, but we have to try it to get the starting spot in Paris. "It will not be easy to get there and that’s also the reason why I’m taking the chance and going to the Worlds without any mountain bike training beforehand," Van der Poel said. The Netherlands is currently ranked 31st in the standings, which puts the onus on Van der Poel to race mountain bike events in the latter part of the season, starting with the Glasgow Worlds. There are only 36 athlete spots for the cross-country race at the Olympics, with the top eight countries earning two places. Of course, the shape should be good from the road Worlds, so I’ll give it a try and see where it ends." I will be there anyway, so maybe something nice can happen there. “I will try to go there without any pressure and just try to adapt by riding a bit on the mountain bike the week after the road Worlds. Normally, I will also do the Worlds on the mountain bike the week after the Worlds on the road, but without any specific preparation,” said Van der Poel. “We’ve talked about it here in La Plagne.
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