Having been forced to miss much of the cyclocross season and not raced so far in the 2022 road campaign, all due to injury, Mathieu van der Poel will definitely be back in action at Milan-Sanremo tomorrow.
The Dutch rider, who has been impacted by his back injury since the first half of last year, has been training in southern Spain in recent weeks and has gradually increased the distance and intensity of those rides.
With his Alpecin Fenix team having seen its roster, like many other cycling teams, hit will illness in the last week to 10 days, it has decided to start the Dutch rider in the Italian classic, it said.
"Due to the several sick and injured riders in the team, only six would remain to line-up for La Primavera," Alpecin Fenix said. "Because van der Poel’s return was already scheduled for Tuesday at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, it was decided on Thursday to add him to the roster for Milano-Sanremo.
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"Van der Poel's training in recent weeks has been satisfactory and his back issues seem to be gradually disappearing. Nevertheless, the team management do not want to put any pressure on the four-time cyclocross world champion; he will participate without expectations or ambitions.
"The 293km race was preferred over a training session on Saturday to get some extra race kilometres in the legs. After Milano-Sanremo, van der Poel will stay in Italy for the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali."
The team said earlier this year Van der Poel's back injury was a problem long before his crash in the MTB race at the Olympics. While Van der Poel was 2nd in Dendermonde World Cup race on St Stephen’s Day, he took a heavy tumble there.
He started Heusden-Zolder the next day but abandoned after six laps due to back pain. Furthermore, his cyclocross return had followed recovery from another injury, to his knee. He has not raced since that aborted outing at Heusden-Zolder.
His team said in January Van der Poel was diagnosed with “swelling on an intervertebral disc” and he shelved plans to ride any more cyclocross events. He then underwent a period of rest before gradually easing back into training, which he has built up of late.
