The China Mail - Van der Poel, Van Aert resume battle at season's 1st cobbled classic

Fresh from making history earlier this month by winning an eighth cyclocross world title, Van der Poel has been relaxing and skiing since, leaving everyone to wonder when and where he would start his road season.

The suspense was finally broken on Wednesday when his Alpecin-Premier Tech team revealed that the 31-year-old would line up for the first race of the traditional Opening Weekend double-header in Belgium -- Omloop on Saturday and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday.

Alpecin, a Belgium-based team, were desperate for Van der Poel to start his season at Omloop, with boss Christoph Roodhooft telling Wieler Revue cycling magazine recently how disappointed he had been last season when the Dutchman opted to skip the curtain-raiser.

Van der Poel has been training in southern Spain since his skiing holiday, something which Roodhooft said was important for the rider's work-life equilibrium.

"He has found an incredibly good balance. Sport takes a prominent place in it," Roodhooft told Wieler.

"He is willing to make sacrifices, can hurt himself incredibly during training and has somehow come to embrace that feeling."

Despite top-level cycle races taking place over the last month in sunny climes such as Australia, the Middle East and southern Spain, for many cycling purists, the true season starts now.

Omloop is the first race of the season in cycling's heartland of northwestern Europe and is often raced in freezing conditions.

It begins the sequence of cobbled classics that end with the two Monuments, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, but which also includes Gent-Wevelgem -- now renamed In Flanders Fields -- and E3 Saxo Classic, amongst others.

- Van der Poel-Pogacar battle -

It is the two Monuments that create the most excitement, not least because those will be two of a small number of one-day classics in which Van der Poel and four-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar will do battle.

The first of those will likely come at Milan-San Remo, which is the first of five Monuments this season, in three weeks' time.

After that slog from northern Italy's industrial heartland to its Riviera along the Ligurian coast, it will be on the cobbles that the pair do battle.

They are all square at two wins apiece on the cobbled Monuments, with Van der Poel claiming victory on their first meeting in Flanders in 2022 and Paris-Roubaix last year, whereas Pogacar won Flanders in 2023 and 2025.

The Dutch rider has a slight edge at Milan-San Remo, coming out on top in three out of their five meetings there, where he is a two-time champion and the Slovenian is yet to taste success.

Pogacar has already stated that winning the two Monuments still missing from his incredible achievements -- Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix -- are amongst his main priorities for the year.

Both of them may have to contend with a rejuvenated Van Aert this spring.

The Belgian showed glimpses of fine form during the cyclocross season, although a broken ankle from a crash scuppered his winter campaign.

Van Aert said last month that he was targeting the first three Monuments as his main goals.

The 2020 Milan-San Remo is his only Monument victory.

A cobbled classics specialist, he has won Omloop, Kuurne, E3 (twice) and Gent-Wevelgem but his best finish in Flanders and Paris-Roubaix is second.

He will be on the start line for Omloop, a 208-kilometre trek from Gent to Ninove punctured by several hills and cobbled sections.

Britain's double mountain bike Olympic champion Tom Pidcock is also due to race, as are last year's top three, Norway's Soren Waerenskjold, Paul Magnier of France and Belgian Jasper Philipsen, and former winner Dylan van Baarle.

In Kuurne, which usually ends in a bunch sprint, Italian Jonathan Milan will be the man to beat but the likes of Eritrean Biniam Girmay, France's Christophe Laporte and former winners Philipsen and Kasper Asgreen should also challenge.

T.Luo--ThChM