According to Het Laatste Nieuws, there is a good chance that Mathieu van der Poel will also include Il Lombardia in his racing program after the World Championships in Zurich.
Van der Poel has been meticulously preparing for the World Championships in Zurich for the past eight weeks, which he has made his big goal for the autumn. The reigning world champion already made it clear that he had lost weight for that, something that could also work for the Lombardia.
“I am already working for the World Championships,” Van der poel said few weeks ago. “The accents I set in Spain were also for the World Championships in Zurich. It will be difficult to defend my title, but we will try. We will try to be a bit lighter than in the spring. That is important. Just like including a few longer training sessions, since the World Championships will be a long race. There is a small chance, but the course of the race will determine a lot. I am not one of the top favorites on that route, but that may give me some room”.
In addition, the brand new final of Lombardia seems more feasible than the previous editions for Van der Poel. 2020 was the only season when the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix winner was at the start of the Italian monument, which was also his only participation. He finished tenth in 2020.
