New world champion Mathieu van der Poel showed off the rainbow jersey for the first time on Sunday afternoon. FAIR RACE The Pro Tour at Etten-Leur had a special scoop.
About 20,000 people turned out on Sunday for the VDP and its Belgian counterpart Lotte Kopecky. Van der Poel took a lot of time in advance to distribute autographs to the Brabant crowd.
Van de Poel and Kubicki were not the only cycling stars to travel to Etienne-Lor. European Championship winner Fabio Jacobsen, green jersey wearer Jasper Philipsen, Champs-Elysées victor Jordi Meus and King of the Mountain Giulio Ciccone are also present on behalf of the men.
Among the women, only Tour winner Demi Wohlring and Giro winner Annemieke van Vleuten were present.
There Van der Poel told the Belgian channel Sporza He is considering participating in the Olympic mountain bike test event in Paris in a month, on September 23-24. He might want to do some road racing before then. “After this criterion I will start cycling again and then I will see how I feel in the coming weeks. There is a possibility that some road races will be added to my program, so that Not only do I have to train in preparation for the test event.” Marbella showed up and a few hours later in Etten-Leur was the start.
In his rainbow jersey (“probably the most sought-after jersey in the peloton”) van der Poel won the criterium. For the women, Fullering did so in the yellow jersey, as the winner of the Tour de France. Kopecky, Vollering’s Belgian teammate in the SD Worx team, rode as road world champion in the rainbow jersey at Etten-Leur.
Van der Poel enjoyed a short holiday with some friends in the Spanish sunshine in recent days. “We had some good evenings,” said the all-rounder on the bike. “The World Cup was my last big goal of the season. But because of those strange timings for the World Cup, the season is not over yet.”
Earlier this year, Van der Poel won the cyclo-cross world title and two Classics: Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix. “Of course I can only be very satisfied with my season. I know I will probably never have a year like this again. It was a shame to end the World Championships in Glasgow by falling on the mountain bike. I blamed myself for that for a few days.
Van der Poel, as he had done two years earlier in the Olympic mountain bike race in Japan, had an early crash and retired. He wants to make another attempt at an Olympic mountain bike medal in Paris next year.
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