‘I can only say Mathieu is fine’ – Alpecin-Deceuninck fully confident in Van der Poel for World Championships

For an insider report on defending World Champion Mathieu van der Poel’s final build-up for this Sunday’s road race, you could hardly do better than go to Alpecin-Deceuninck team manager Christoph Roodhoft.

Roodhoft was present in the team car during Van der Poel’s final pre-Worlds race, the Tour de Luxembourg, which the squad’s Netherlands star opened up with a victory on stage 1 and held the lead for several days before finally dropping to second overall behind Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious).