Whatever the outcome of Sunday's Tour of Flanders, Mathieu Van der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) is not going to blame his short preparation time for the classics. Treatment for a long-standing back injury delayed his road season by 10 days from Milan to San Remo, but he already looked to be reaching top speed in Italy, starting with third place on the Via Roma.

Last Friday afternoon, while his eternal rival Wout Van Aert was winning the E3 Saxo Bank Classic 1,300 km to the north, Van der Pol won the Settimana Coppi e Bartali stage 4 in Montecatini, further reminding him of his confidence in his own ronde.

Just two weeks ago, it was completely unclear whether Van der Pol would even run the cobbled classic, but on Wednesday he will begin his campaign in the north as the favorite to win the Doire de Flanderen, which Van Aert will miss. Speaking to reporters the night before the race, he extolled the unexpected virtues of the postponed start of the 2022 season. 'I think it was probably one of the best preparations I've ever done. I was able to prepare the way I wanted to instead of starting racing right after the cyclo-cross season," said van der Pol, who trained in the interior of Alicante during February and early March.

"I am quite satisfied with the preparation I did. Of course it still has to pay off, but I felt good in the races I have already done. It was a little short, but I think it was very good." For years, it has been common practice to do a steady stream of races in February and March as preparation for the Classics. But Van der Pol cited the example of Van Aert's victory in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the first road race of 2022, as an indication that athletes can now build the same durable foundation in training. 'I think this is the new cycling,' he said. Van Aert, for example, is very strong in his first race after training at altitude. He also won Omloop. Coppi e Bartali did the same, and I think I'm at that level. Van der Pol disagreed that his time away from racing was a mental break. I don't know if it was good for me mentally. It was not a good period. He did admit, however, that he learned the importance of devoting time to areas he had neglected in the past. In particular, I've learned that I need to focus on stability and fitness exercises," he said. I've had to change disciplines a few times in the last few years and haven't had time to do these exercises," he said. Now I'm even cutting back an hour on the bike to do my exercises."

Van Aert, led by the Jumbo-Visma team, is the favorite to win the Tour de Flanders, thanks to his victories in the Omloop and E3 Saxo Bank Classic, and an impressive strong ride in the Kemmelberg of Ghent-Wevelgem. Van der Pol had only seen bits and pieces of these races, but the TV footage did not tell him anything he did not already know about his old sparring partners skipping the Doire de Vlaanderen. 'I did see some of the races, but I was busy racing, training, exercising. But I definitely saw some of it, and they look really strong this year," Van der Pol said. Van der Poel, the reigning Tour de France champion, will make his debut in Flanders Door Flanderen and will be looking for his third monumental victory in less than a year in the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. It is clear that Pogachar is not in Belgium as a tourist, as he showed in a ferocious onslaught in the Milan-San Remo poggio.

"I don't know why he does these races, but I have seen that he is competent in everything he does. Three years ago, when van der Pol was still a novice in this genre of racing, he scored a landmark first road win in the Doire de Vlaanderen and finished fourth in the Ronde the following weekend. He and his teammates attacked from a distance and sprinted to the finish. It's a good memory," Van der Pol said, adding that the race had little impact on the weekend's racing. Last year," van der Poel said, "I had a crash in the Côte de Trieux and a good result in the Tour of Flanders. Van der Poel's two recent Ronde experiences also ended in two-up sprints. In the 2020 edition, postponed by the pandemic, he finished ahead of Van Aert in Oudenaarde, but last April he was unexpectedly beaten by Caspar Asgreen. Van der Pol said, "If you can be in contention for the win like that and run to the finish, you've already run a good race." It's not about the fastest guy, it's about the strongest guy. But if I can be in that position again on Sunday, that's all that matters."