Mathieu van der Poel has his eyes firmly focused on the road season as he hit the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix for a recon ride.
The Alpecin-Fenix rider took a trip into northern France on Monday (June 29) to ride the final 100km of the Monument with his team-mates and took a few Strava KoMs over the iconic farm tracks.
Starting at Wavrechain-sous-Denain,which appears just before the Haveluy-Wallers cobbled sector in the event, Van der Poel flew through the final 19 cobbled stretches of the race and was even able to complete a lap of the famous Roubaix velodrome.
The 25-year-old finished the 106km ride in three hours, averaging 290 watts for the duration and holding a staggering average speed of 35.5km/h.
On his way to Roubaix, Van der Poel topped a few Strava leaderboards, including a 240 metre stretch of the Templeuve cobbled sector, which he rode in 18 seconds, with an average power of 620w and holding a speed of 48.1km/h.
Van der Poel is also the fastest rider (on Strava) to complete the Pavé Bourghelles á Wannehain segments, covering the 1.18km in 1-40 with an average power of 491w.
The cyclocross world champion completed the rider with team-mates Jonas Rickaert, Kristian Sbaragli, Senne Leysen and Tim Merlier.
In January, the organisers of Paris-Roubaix extended a formal invite to Van der Poel’s team for the French one-day event, securing his debut ride.
Van der Poel missed out on the 2019 edition of the race when his Professional Continental outfit were not given a coveted wildcard spot.
The 2020 edition was initially scheduled to take place in its usual spot in April, but was then postponed due to the coronavirus crisis.
Instead the ‘Queen of the Classics’ has been moved to Sunday October 25, so it will now clash with the Vuelta.
Organiser ASO has also announced the first ever women’s edition of Paris-Roubaix, which will also be held on the same Sunday.
Alex is the digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter and now as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output.
Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) and joining CW in 2018, Alex has covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers.
Away from journalism, Alex is a national level time triallist, avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
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