New world champions Lotte Kopecky and Mathieu van der Poel will race in the rainbow jersey for the first time at the Profwielerronde Etten Leur criterium in the Netherlands on Sunday.
The criterium could be van der Poel’s last road race of the 2023 season, with his Alpecin-Deceuninck team telling Cyclingnews that his race plans have still to be decided.
Kopecky is a late addition to the women’s race after she won the world title on Sunday. She will race alongside Demi Vollering, who she beat in Glasgow after they had dominated the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Also racing are Annemiek van Vleuten and Puck Pieterse in a 31-rider field.
Van der Poel won the men’s road race with a solo attack on August 6, overcoming a late crash. He then stayed in Scotland and raced in the cross-country mountain bike race on Saturday but crashed out on an early corner.
“High highs and low lows. I imagined a different return to the MTB scene but nevertheless I enjoyed being back on the wide tires and the relaxed MTB world,” he wrote on Instagram.
“See you soon in Prof Wielerronde Etten Leur where I'll show my rainbow stripes from last weekend for the first time.”
The Prof Wielerronde Etten Leur criterium boasts it is the largest criterium in Europe. Etten Leur is in the Netherlands, between Antwerp and Rotterdam, not far from van der Poel’s hometown of Kapellen in Belgium and his father’s home town of Hoogerheide.
Other big-name riders due to ride the men’s race include van der Poel’s Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen, Giulio Ciccone and Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep), Jos van Emden (Jumbo-Visma) and Champs Elysees Tour de France sprint winner Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe).
