‘Going as deep as I did today is difficult to simulate in training’ – Mathieu van der Poel puts on a show on Tirreno-Adriatico gravel ahead of next big Classics

Mathieu van der Poel went deep and seemed to suffer, like few other times in his career, to win stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico but a smile soon replaced his gasps for air, the cyclo-cross World Champion admitting the gravel racing and all-out sprint in the shadows of the towers of San Gimignano was “cool”.

“I think it was good to see on television. I enjoyed it,” the Dutchman said in the post-race press conference.