Mathieu van der Poel's chances of winning a third Tour of Flanders undoubtedly increased with the devastating crash of Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) in Dwars door Vlaanderen this week. But the Dutchman expressed his sympathy both for his Belgian rival and for Lidl-Trek, who lost Jasper Stuyven to a broken collarbone.
"[The crash] is particularly unfortunate for the Tour of Flanders, but even more for Wout and Jasper. You live for months towards those important two races and then, just a few days before, you are sidelined. You really don't wish that on anyone," Van der Poel said in pre-race comments sent to media by Alpecin-Deceuninck.
"I have never made it a secret that I prefer to race with all the top riders at the start," he said. "Whether the absence of Wout and Jasper will affect me, you can't predict in advance. Perhaps there will be even more pressure on my shoulders, which doesn't make it any easier."
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Van der Poel did not plan to race Dwars door Vlaanderen after winning the E3 Saxo Classic and taking second to Mads Pedersen in Gent-Wevelgem and isn't dwelling on what could have happened.
"[Dwars door Vlaanderen] was never on the menu, because the double E3 - Gent-Wevelgem was already hard enough. And we will never know if I would have been involved in the crash as well, but it could have been just like that, of course," he said.
Alpecin-Deceuninck also announced on Friday that Jasper Philipsen, winner of Milan-San Remo, will not be racing the Tour of Flanders. He has been replaced by Gianni Vermeersch.
"In agreement with team management and performance, Jasper is changing his program a little bit as he will ride the Scheldeprijs on Wednesday, just like he did last year, ahead of Paris-Roubaix, with success," the team stated on Instagram.
Also in the Alpecin-Deceuninck lineup are Søren Kragh Andersen, Silvan Dillier, under-23 world champion Axel Laurance, Xandro Meurisse, and Oscar Riesebeek.
The pre-prepared comments from Van der Poel did not mention the change to the roster which will take a bit of firepower out of his support for the Tour of Flanders.
Even though Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek have lost key members, Van der Poel said they "remain two super strong blocks even without the presence of Van Aert and Stuyven, respectively. Jorgensen, Benoot, Pedersen, Milan, you name it.
"At least with me, the focus remains the same. I'm just going to do my thing. Winning the Tour of Flanders is never easy and Sunday will be no different."
"How I'm going to tackle it? I can't say much about that beforehand. It depends on how the race evolves, and how the situation is. Of course, I will take responsibility, but as I said, in my opinion, Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek remain super-strong opponents."
