Van Der Poel: "I hope Pogacar doesn't improve in 2025"

Rome, 27 October 2024 - At the beginning, talking about an increasingly boring cycling, he had lit the fuse Victor Campenaerts, which he later echoed Wout poels, who ironically said that he had thought about retiring after seeing his exploits at Tour of Lombardy 2024: to the chorus of 'dissent' towards the peremptory and irrevocable undertakings of the rivals of Tadej pogacar joins Mathieu van der Poel, which has a very specific 'hope' for the 2025.  

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  And to think that the two are great friends, as well as protagonists of many training sessions together but, even before that, they are opponents on the road and in particular in the Classics, the Dutch specialty, which on the sidelines of Criterium of La Nucia (area to the south of the Spain where he lives and trains) first of all drew a balance of his season. "I won the Tour of Flanders , Paris-Roubaix in the rainbow jersey and therefore I can only be satisfied". If the spring was excellent, the summer of Van der Poel It was quite disappointing. "I wasn't happy with my performance at Tour de France, but I had fun. At my debut at the Great Boucle I had worn the yellow jersey and won stages, so expectations had risen and also for this reason this year the comparison with the past was negative". Everything that concerns the 2024 of cycling is now a thing of the past, but to draw up programmes for the 2025 the times are still premature. "I don't know if I'll be at the next year Tour de France: it will depend on how the previous season went. Furthermore - continues the son of Adrie Van Der Poel and grandson of Raymond Poulidor - I would like to focus on mountain biking, which for me remains a big goal". In short, on the road in the summer Van der Poel could have a more marginal role: on the contrary, in spring the focus will still be on the main Classics. pogacar allowing. "He is a tough rival, especially at Tour of Flanders, but I like how he takes racing to the extreme. I think he can do well in the future too Paris-Roubaix: he proved it in that stage at Tour de France with cobbled sectors, where he was very good". If that were the case, Van der Poel and the others could soon find themselves facing the bogeyman pogacar also atHell of the North: the Slovenian himself, in fact, in the last few days did not deny that he already had this thought in his head, perhaps not in 2025, the year in which he will be back on stage at the Tour of Flanders. For the (non) joy of the runner of theAlpecin-Deceuninck. "For my sake and for the sake of all of us, his opponents, I hope he doesn't improve further next year, given that he's already had a fantastic season this year and will surely be very happy about it."

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