For Van der Poel, Luxembourg stage win is "nice", but this consistent pattern over the years gives him more confidence

It took a while, but Mathieu van der Poel was finally able to celebrate a victory again. The world champion was the best in the first stage of the Tour of Luxembourg and was very happy about it, even though he and his team had to deal with their fair share of setbacks.

In the flash interview, a satisfied Van der Poel appeared in front of the camera. After a hilly stage, the classics champion was the top favorite for the win. On the uphill finish, he convincingly beat his competitors. With this, he claimed his first victory since Paris-Roubaix this spring – more than 23 weeks ago. "It's nice to win the first stage," said the winner of the challenging stage. "It's been a while since I last raised my hands in the air. It was fun today. It was a beautiful stage, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the race."

Racing in Luxembourg suited Van der Poel, even though he's not very familiar with the roads. "It's been a while since I was here. It must have been since the cyclo-cross world championships, where I lost (Van der Poel finished second behind Wout van Aert in 2017, ed.). It was a beautiful stage, and like I said, the rest of the stages look tough, so I'm going to enjoy it. I'm very happy with the stage win."

Alongside the euphoria, there were also concerns. Three of the world champion's teammates dropped out, leaving him with only two teammates. Defending the leader's jersey will therefore be difficult, said the six-time monument winner. "I think winning stages is important. We've lost some riders due to illness, and now there's only three of us left. It will be tough to control the race. I came here to win a stage, and I succeeded in the first one, so that's nice. It takes some pressure off for what's to come."

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Van der Poel always needs time to get going

However, there wasn’t exactly a euphoric feeling, he emphasized an hour later — after the ceremonies and a doping test — while sitting in a cozy tent opposite IDLProCycling.com. "It wasn't that bad. Winning is always fun, of course, and it's nice to finish it off. I wasn’t necessarily craving it, also because winning sometimes seems obvious, but of course, it’s not. After the spring season, I didn't get many more chances, so I can put it in perspective."

The rainbow jersey holder much prefers to rely on old patterns, a repeated scenario where Van der Poel always needs time to get going and is almost never at his best in his first race. This was the case in 2022 at Milan-San Remo, before he went on to win two classics. It was the same in 2023 when he won Strade Bianche, followed by Milan-San Remo. And it was the same this year, Van der Poel says. "I felt much better today, but that happens to me often. The first race in the spring, Milan-San Remo, wasn’t great, and then the E3 race was immediately much better. It’s a bit the same now. I hope we’ve kicked off, but for now, the most important thing is that I felt good."