Mathieu van der Poel shrugged off a historical quirk as he celebrated a dominant victory in Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, becoming the first rider to win the race on his debut in 25 years. The Alpecin-Premier Tech rider powered to a solo win, finishing 22 seconds ahead of Tim Van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) after a decisive move on the Muur van Geraardsbergen, according to reports from velo.outsideonline.com and hetiskoers.nl.
The win, however, comes with a curious statistical shadow: no rider in the 81-year history of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad has gone on to win the Tour of Flanders in the same year. Van der Poel, however, appeared unconcerned.
“Not at all,” he said, laughing, according to reporting by eurosport.nl. “I’m just happy to win this race.”
The Dutchman has identified the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix as key objectives this season, acknowledging the challenge posed by Tadej Pogačar. “Everyone knows how strong Tadej is there, but I’ll do what I can to be in my best possible form and then we’ll see,” he said.
Van der Poel’s victory was nearly derailed by a crash involving Matteo Trentin at the bottom of the Molenberg, but he skillfully avoided falling, quickly regaining his momentum. This display of reflexes, honed by years of cyclocross racing, proved crucial, according to velo.outsideonline.com.
The 31-year-old has already claimed three Flanders victories in 2020, 2022, and 2024, but was defeated by Pogačar in both 2023 and 2025. He will bypass Strade Bianche next Saturday, opting instead to compete in Tirreno Adriatico before his first anticipated clash with Pogačar at Milan San Remo.
Van der Poel confirmed he will not undertake an altitude training camp prior to Milan San Remo, preferring to maintain his established preparation routine. “I’m just staying here,” he told Wielerflits. “I feel comfortable with this preparation, the way I’ve done it all these years, so we’ll stick to that.”
Despite his age, Van der Poel believes he continues to improve. “Now that I am getting older, the engine gets bigger, so you can also train more and harder,” he said. He suggested that younger riders, already training at extremely high volumes at a young age, may have less room for future development. “If you already train 30 hours as a junior, it is difficult to make progress as you receive older,” he explained.
He contrasted his own development with the current generation, noting that riders are achieving impressive results at younger ages. “I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just different from when I was that age.”
This observation raises questions about the long-term trajectories of both Van der Poel and Pogačar, who himself rose to prominence at a very young age, winning the Tour de France at 20. Whether Pogačar will continue to improve at the same rate, or if his performance will plateau, remains to be seen.
