'He definitely feels it' – Mathieu van der Poel tackles E3 recon with new handlebars after Milan-San Remo hand injury

Mathieu van der Poel appears to be on course to defend his E3 Saxo Classic title on Wednesday, despite not yet fully recovering from the hand injury he sustained at Milan-San Remo last weekend.

The Dutchman was involved in the crash ahead of the Cipressa at Saturday's race and was dropped by Tadej Pogačar on the Poggio, later revealing he could barely hold his handlebars as he revealed his bloodied and cut left hand.

That cast doubt over his participation in Friday's E3, which serves as a 'mini Tour of Flanders' and is a race he has won two years on the spin. However, Van der Poel was present and correct as Alpecin-Premier Tech completed their recon of the course on Tuesday, including the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg.

"The hand is kind of okay," Van der Poel's teammate Silvan Dillier, who was also on the recon, told Cyclingnews on Tuesday. "I think he still... he definitely feels it.

"If it bothers him too much in a race situation, I don't know, but when he's at the start line in E3 he will be our leader, for sure, no doubt."

Van der Poel was pictured on the Oude Kwaremont on Tuesday riding with a new handlebar set-up. This has nothing to do with his hand injury, but Canyon has been teasing a new cockpit in recent weeks, and it's markedly different to Van der Poel's usual set-up.

Van der Poel has been racing in recent months and years with the CP0049 Pro Pace cockpit, with a relatively wide 450mm measurement between the outer extremes of the bars. "They don't seem wider to me. I think they look wider because so many other riders have gone narrower," Van der Poel told us recently of his refusal to follow the aerodynamic trend of narrow bars and turned-in levers.

Whereas the old bars tracked a horizontal line, the new system sees the bars splay forward.

Van der Poel has been spotted using the new cockpit in training in recent weeks but stuck to his familiar bars for Milan-San Remo, so it's unclear if we'll see him use the new set-up at E3 or indeed at the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix. Indeed, later in the same recon on Tuesday Van der Poel was pictured riding with his old bars.

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