Mathieu van der Poel

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is a Monument winner and World Champion on the road, mountain bike and cyclo-cross fields.

Van der Poel was a much heralded junior rider on the road and in cyclo-cross with junior World Championship titles in both disciplines. At the beginning of his professional career, Van der Poel focused entirely on cyclo-cross, collecting his first elite world championship in his second year out of the junior ranks. It was also one of the first big rendezvous with his eternal rival, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike).

In 2019, Van der Poel upped his road racing with his first full classics season. While Van der Poel had strong races throughout the spring, it was his ride at the Amstel Gold Race that truly announced the Dutchman as a preeminent rider in the men’s professional peloton. It was a comeback that baffled commentators and fans alike, as Van der Poel rode himself back to the front of the race, as the riders out front played cat and mouse, before leading himself out from 600 metres to go to win the race in the Dutch champion's kit.

Since 2019, the team that was built around Van der Poel has elevated to WorldTour level and their talisman has built a palmarès in the monuments that already rivals that of Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen. In 2020, Van der Poel won his first Tour of Flanders while he showed his range with a sixth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. In 2021, he won Strade Bianche and came in second at Flanders, before another near miss at Paris-Roubaix.

In 2022 it was another Flanders win, that was followed by Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix titles in 2023.

Van der Poel also won the men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Glasgow. He will wear the rainbow jersey throughout the 2024 road season and target the Spring Classics and both the mountain biking and road race at the Olympic Games in Paris.