Mathieu van der Poel has been confirmed as a starter for the upcoming Critérium du Dauphiné (June 8-15) by his Alpecin-Deceuninck team, with the Dutch racer's wrist injury from his MTB crash improving sufficiently to ensure he can take part.
Van der Poel's participation in the Dauphiné was thrown into doubt after he broke his wrist as a result of a double crash in the Nové Mesto MTB race last month.
However, fortunately, the injury proved not to be as severe as was first feared. Although Van der Poel had to miss out on an early part of a Tour de France team altitude camp in the Alps, the former world champion was soon spotted riding six-hour training sessions in Spain.
Rather than perhaps switching to an alternative program in the Tour de Suisse to give him more time to recover, given his fast bounceback, on Wednesday, the team confirmed via Instagram that he would be taking part in the Critérium du Dauphiné.
Just as for Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), this year's Critérium du Dauphiné is considered a critical warm-up race for Van der Poel en route to the Tour de France.
The eight-day event will be Van der Poel's first road race back after his brilliant Classics campaign, which saw him take wins at Milan-San Remo, the E3 Saxo Classic, and Paris-Roubaix.
Chances for Van der Poel to snatch a victory will come as soon as the rolling stage 1 to Montluçon. Stages 2, 3 and 5 also all look perfectly suited to Van der Poel's well-known talents for shining on undulating, punchy courses.
Van der Poel will be joined in the Critérium de Dauphiné by Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates Tobias Bayer, Lars Boven, Michael Gogl, Xandro Meurisse, Johan Price-Pejtersen and Gianni Vermeesch.
