Van der Poel, a rainbow idol on Gran Vía: "I feel mature, perhaps stronger than ever"

The line overflowed the Plaza de Callao and stretched down Gran Vía, towards Plaza de España. At noon yesterday, the only desire of hundreds of fans was to get an autograph and a photo with Mathieu van der Poel (Kapellen, 1995), wearer of the rainbow jersey. Before leaving the Madrid Criterium, the latest winner of Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the Glasgow World Cup saved a few minutes to talk with EL MUNDO.

Until today [yesterday] you had only participated in two races in Spain, the 2014 Ponferrada World Cup, in the sub-23 category and the Benidorm CX, last year. Is this Madrid Criterium a new milestone in your relationship with our country? I don't know, really. Competing in the Vuelta is on my wish list for the future, of course, so I am convinced that I will race it at least once in the coming years. But in the meantime, I think that not competing so much in Spain has been the right decision. In 2023 it has given us fantastic victories in San Remo, Roubaix and the Glasgow World Cup. Do you think you have already reached your full maturity as a cyclist? Yes, of course, I consider it to be one of my best seasons so far. Of course, the experience that I was able to accumulate during the last few years in those same races has had an influence.. I think I have reached maturity and perhaps I feel stronger than ever.. You are the king of short distances, champion of the cyclocross World Cup, but also the one of the most demanding race due to its mileage, like Milan – San Remo. What is the secret of its versatility? I don't know, honestly.. I grew up doing cyclocross, so it's a specialty that was always familiar to me and I always knew how to tackle. My jump into road racing also helped me understand that I could be really strong in the final stretches of such long events.. And that is now one of my great strengths..

There was always a group of chosen ones who shared everything. 20 years ago the same thing happened

This season, Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel and you have shared 85% of the big wins. Is this percentage good news for cycling? Of course, because it has always happened this way. That is to say, this sport has always had a select group that prevailed in the most prestigious races.. Without going any further, the same thing happened 20 years ago.. And this is because some events on the calendar are so hard and difficult that in the end they will always fall in favor of the strongest. I wanted to ask you about your fierce rivalry with Van Aert. Do you think that the Belgian, in some way, is afraid of you? No, I don't think so at all.. Just like I'm not afraid of him either.. I think we've simply been great rivals for many years.. As I said on other occasions, that also helps us both reach a better level. Do you feel something special when you manage to beat him? No, not at all.. I have known Wout for a long time and as I have already mentioned several times, I am used to having great battles with him. However, I have also been able to feel something similar against Pogacar, like two years ago in the Tour of Flanders. It was something very special to see the winner of the Tour de France compete with me on the pavé. You don't have to personalize anyone, but rather try to be the best on a given day. You have come to be pigeonholed as a runner who relies simply on brute force.. Do you think you still have weak points where you can continue to improve? I simply feel satisfied with the way I raced throughout the season. I think I completed very good races, with intelligence when reading situations, combined with others where I showed all my strength.. I feel pretty happy with how things went.

I'm going to focus on the races I like to do.

To win the five monuments, you still need Flanders, Liège and Lombardy. Are these careers goals for you? No, not really.. So far I have won the classics that best suited my way of running. For example, I think Lombardy would be really difficult for me, due to its steep profile. Maybe in the future, but for now I'm going to focus on the races that I really like to do. Are you going to continue combining road cycling with cyclocross and mountain bike events in the future or are you going to definitely focus on the first discipline? Now I'm focused on the road tests. During the last few years I was not really active in MTB, since it is very difficult to combine it at the highest level. In my early days, when I did it, I didn't really compete in the most prestigious road events. Does mountain biking help you develop new skills for the road or can it harm you in some way? I've always found positives since I went from MTB to the road. I felt pretty strong and it also helped me stay mentally fresh.. For me it is always good to alternate the different disciplines. How can you explain the overwhelming dominance of the Jumbo in the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta? It did not surprise me, because they had already been showing their strength for a couple of years. They just have extraordinarily strong running backs. The entire team is incredible and only in this way can you obtain results like this.