UCI president answers criticism on Van der Poel: "Mathieu is a great ambassador for the sport"

There is a chance Mathieu van der Poel competed in his last race in the rainbow (road cycling) jersey. The Dutchman would then have owned the jersey for nearly 14 months, from Aug. 6, 2023, to Sept. 29, 2024. At that time, he showed his jersey 44 times in competitions, which critics thought was too little. UCI president David Lappartient believes Van der Poel did an excellent job honoring his period in the jersey.

During his time in the rainbow jersey, Van der Poel was victorious five times: he won the Super 8 Classic last fall, was best in the spring in the E3 Saxo Classic, Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix, and recently won the first stage in the Tour of Luxembourg. So, a score of 11.3 percent. In the process, he also finished second in Ghent-Wevelgem and third in Liege-Bastogne-Liège, among others. After that last spring race, he took seventy days off in terms of races to return to competition at the start of the Tour.

Among others, Roger De Vlaeminck complained about the number of race days of Van der Poel, who already had a statement about it in the spring. At the time, the Dutchman revealed that working toward the seven significant races - as he did in the spring - takes a lot mentally. At the same time, the team decided to skip Tirreno-Adriatico.

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Lappartient: "Mathieu also needs to slow down sometimes"

As UCI president, Lappartient does not immediately accept the criticism that Van der Poel rode too little. "He also does cyclo-cross, so you can't ride races on the road during winter. If you add those races to that, and he is also cyclo-cross world champion, you end up with about sixty race days." Indeed, Van der Poel rode 14 cyclo-cross races, making 58 times.

"And Mathieu is a one-day rider, not a man for stage races," Lappartient pinpoints. "Then you automatically ride fewer races than a rider who rides two grand tours in a year. Besides, it is a trend for the top riders to ride less than they used to. It will never return to the times of Eddy Merckx; for example, the average is now around 65 race days. All the fans love to see Mathieu and the other top riders in action, but you sometimes have to slow down to achieve that top form. We might see that again on Sunday," the Frenchman refers to the World Championship in Zurich.

"Mathieu is a very good ambassador for the sport," Lappartient concluded. "He has competed in great races; for him, every race is a main goal. If you look at his way of racing, you will see that sometimes he doesn't even know where he will attack. You never know the scenario with him, although I wonder if he always knows that himself."