Mathieu van der Poel: The more I complain, the better I am

If modern cycling can sometimes seem robotic, Mathieu van der Poel put some humanity back into it at the E3 Saxo Classic, even if he did appear to be operating on another planet to most of the competition.

The world champion revealed concerns over his form in the build-up to Friday’s race, confessing that he had not felt good in training since Milan-San Remo, where he’d described his performance – utterly instrumental in setting up victory for his teammate Jasper Philipsen – as “not great”.

Totted up in advance, the ‘numbers’, as they say, did not add up to a solo victory of 44km – the biggest in the race’s history – and a winning margin of 91 seconds. In fact, that very morning he and his team were discussing adding next week’s Dwars door Vlaanderen to his programme, amid concerns his form may need to be pushed along ahead of the Tour of Flanders.

Suffice to say, that won’t be necessary anymore.

“There was a bit of a question mark, but the level I had today was really high - maybe the highest I've had in the Classics races,” Van der Poel said in his winner's press conference.

“I actually didn’t feel great in training this week, but it’s the races that count. They always say, the more I complain the better I am, so I was complaining a lot this week.”

• E3 Saxo Classic: Mathieu van der Poel powers to victory as Wout van Aert crashes

The slight caveat was the suggestion that his World Championship-winning level in Glasgow last autumn may have been his career peak, and he was on fire in the 2021 Tour de France. Yet, for a rider who has won Milan-San Remo, Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold Race, and twice the Tour of Flanders, the ‘highest-ever level’ comment was quite the statement.

“I’m still growing as an athlete I believe,” he said, underlining his problem-free winter as a big difference-maker.

“We always try to get better, and we also know from the Worlds last year that with more training it can get better. It’s a difficult combination of course and the performance team know more than me, but I can only say I’m super happy with today.”

'I can go deep in training but I can never do what I can in a race'

Van der Poel raced E3 like a rider with nothing to lose. Everyone predicted the Taaienberg would be the crucial moment and he duly went solo there with 80km to go. He soon relented, of course, but he accelerated again on the Stationsberg, dragging only Wout Van Aert clear, before launching the winning move on the Paterberg some 44km from the finish in Harelbeke.

He was aided by Wout van Aert’s freak crash, but the way he fended off his rival’s furious pursuit and then soloed further and further away from everyone else spoke volumes.

“I train for this kind of solo efforts quite a lot but it’s also something I always had. For sure, I don’t like to train this because I completely fuck myself in training if I do these efforts, but then it pays off so it makes it all worth it,” Van der Poel said.

“I have the ability to really go deep with this kind of effort in training as well but racing is something different. I can never do in training what I can do in a race.”

• Read more: Post finish line crash adds 'insult to injury' for Jorgenson and Visma at E3

It’s somewhat refreshing when a performance is not entirely predictable, when the occasion of race day can still make a rider more than the sum of their watts. And yet, by the same logic, it would be dangerous to look at this and anoint Van der Poel as the Tour of Flanders winner in waiting.

“I’ve won Flanders when I was really shit here as well,” Van der Poel countered, noting that Wout Van Aert won this race in the previous two years but hasn’t yet raised his arms at the Ronde.

“I just wanted to win this race, I hadn’t won it yet, so for me that’s the most important thing today. To do it in the rainbow jersey makes it even more special.”

Van der Poel will line up on Sunday for Gent-Wevelgem, now one of the few major one-day races not on his palmarès, where victory would make him the first world champion to win E3 and Gent-Wevelgem. It would also completely eliminate any need to line up at Dwars door Vlaanderen next week, with the likelihood that he'll head to the warmth of Spain for the final pre-Flanders tune-ups.

"I'm still looking at the weather day by day," he said.