With a week to go in the Tour of Flanders, Mathieu Van der Pol's team manager Christophe Rudhoft said that the Dutchman is one of the race's favorites, if not yet a serious contender like his longtime rival Wout Van Aert He said.

Van der Pol made a surprise return to racing with a third-place finish in Milan-San Remo last week after a long rehab from back problems that affected much of the 2021 season.

On Friday, he won the fourth stage of the Settimana Coppi e Bartali, attacking alone after an early breakaway and winning a group sprint that caught up with him. The 27-year-old has clearly been improving rapidly, but Rudoft was cautious about his chances in De Ronde. [Alpecin Phoenix boss Roodhoft told WielerFlits (opens in new tab), "It is very difficult to say where he stands. 'There is probably still room for improvement, but right now Mathieu is at the point where a bad day, a good day, or a super day can make the difference between winning and losing. He is no longer lagging behind in fitness.

Rudhoeft confirmed that van der Pol does not currently have back problems. Nevertheless, the race on the cobblestones of Coppi e Bartali and Belgium is quite different.

"It's totally different," Rudhoft said of the Coppi e Bartali. You can't compare the third place in Milan-San Remo to De Londe." You can't compare third place at Milano-Sanremo with third place at De Londe. It remains to be seen how he will perform there. But of course we expect him to run at a high level.

"Mathieu will be fine in the Tour de Flanders. 'But is he a top rider? No, he's one of the favorites to win. In cycling, you lose much more often than you win.

"Is it the rider who had a super day, or is it the rider who fights his way to victory out of the expected 10-15?"

Mathieu Van Der Pol is there. But we don't know and he doesn't know if he's going to have a super day where he's going to win."

After finishing the hilly Coppi e Bartali stage on Saturday afternoon, Van der Pol will return to Belgium for a final tune-up for Flanders. He will line up at the start of the Dwars door Vlaanderen in Roeselaere.

"The job is done," Rudhoeft said, noting that the road to Flanders will be the same as in 2019, when he finished fourth in this race, and in 2021, when he finished second behind Kasper Asgreen in the two-up sprint finish.

A return to the Amstel Gold Race, which he won sensationally in 2019, was set for the week after Flanders. However, van der Pol's earlier-than-expected return seemed to cast doubt on his participation in Paris-Roubaix a week later.

"First I want to see how he digests the Doire and Flanders. Flanders is a very different course from, say, Milan-San Remo, which is very different in terms of the strain on the body."

"We will see how he reacts to the race and then consider it further. In the case of Mathieu van der Pol, the selection slot for the Amstel Gold Race is always open.

"He is hungry, but not without intelligence. It's to everyone's advantage now, including his, to stay calm."