Adrie van der Poel talks about Mathieu's illness and impact of the crash: "You won't know until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow"

Mathieu van der Poel finished third in the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, which was also witnessed by his father, Adrie. He was talking to the Alpecin-Deceuninck team bus about what he had seen in the cycling classic won by Tadej Pogacar. "That crash could have had a much bigger impact, but you won't know that until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."

Van der Poel senior saw that his son was not at his best, but at the time, he did not know that Mathieu had also been ill earlier in the week. "I've been sitting there all week, room 316," Adrie pointed to his hotel in Oudenaarde. "I'm giving Mathieu his space these weeks, and I'll see what happens."

Van der Poel himself said he took antibiotics for three days. "I haven't been very healthy since the E3, which is a factor of course. I had a bit of a cold. I certainly wasn't the only one; many riders fell ill."

That did not surprise Adrie. "Last week, he was already talking through his nose. It's one of those things: racing in bad weather can affect you because you can't take care of yourself as well as you should after a race. The risk is that you are more susceptible when in good shape. Then you catch something more quickly."

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Adrie van der Poel: "You hit the ground at 60 kilometers per hour"

In the Tour of Flanders, you will obviously be out of your depth against Tadej Pogacar, especially if you crash. "You just have to watch how the race develops. A lot happened with the crash, and so on. And in the end, he was still there. I think that had a bigger impact than many people realize."

"I don't think he was at his peak. That crash could have had a much bigger impact, but you won't know that until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,' Adrie explains. 'People underestimate the impact of crashes. You're still going to hit the ground at sixty kilometers an hour. I'm also convinced he could keep up with Pogacar if he hadn't crashed. That crash had a big impact."

Van der Poel has another chance at Paris-Roubaix. "It doesn't mean much about Paris-Roubaix next week because everyone starts at zero. But Pogacar is the top favorite. The weather is good, and it will be dry. He is a good rider and has a more than solid team. For me, riding on cobblestones is the same as racing uphill. You won't make any progress when nothing is left in your legs either."

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