Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel both start week of E3 battle on gravel

They avoided each other until the end of March, but this Friday, the time finally came: the first showdown between Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert on the road. Almost two months after the cyclo-cross world championships, they are at the start of the E3 Saxo Classic, for which they both trained on gravel on Monday.

Both men began the week of the E3 Saxo Classic on gravel, as they showed on Instagram. Van der Poel returned home after Milan-Sanremo and has been doing more and more training on gravel over the years. The world champion in that discipline also did this on Monday in favorable circumstances.

Van Aert, on the other hand, was caught on camera by training buddy Tiesj Benoot, who immediately praised his bike. The two are still at a high-altitude training camp but will return home this week for the next races.

Read more below the photo!

Wout van Aert (left) and Mathieu van der Poel (right) train on gravel. 

Van der Poel and Van Aert both focus on Tour of Flanders and Roubaix

So far, Van Aert's season consisted of Clasica Jaén, the Tour of the Algarve, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Next, the Belgian went to Tenerife with Benoot and Wilco Kelderman to train, which meant he skipped the Italian races (and Paris-Nice). However, Van der Poel did go to Italy after a well-deserved vacation following the cyclo-cross world championships.

That decision certainly paid off for the Dutch rider. Although he was unsuccessful in Tirreno-Adriatico, last Saturday, he won the first monument of the cycling season with a dazzling performance in Milan-Sanremo. His next appointment is on Friday in the E3 Saxo Classic, after which he will focus on the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Van Aert will ride all those races and add the Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold Race to his schedule.

Read the preview of the E3 Saxo Classic here.

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