Alpecin-Deceuninck competes for victory in three of five Monuments: "Van der Poel of course chooses his own goals"

First, second, first, 48th, and 29th: these are the results of Alpecin-Deceuninck in the five cycling Monuments Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and to conclude, the Tour of Lombardy this year. A magnificent report card, of course, but will we see the team compete in the hilly classics in the near future?

Team director Michel Cornelisse typically serves as the sports director for the women's team and, after the Tour of the Falling Leaves, was also very pleased with Yara Kastelijn's fourth place at the Women's World Gravel Championship. Still, he was mainly proud of his boys' performance in the tough race in Northern Italy. "We gave it a good try, right? Two guys in the breakaway," he booms in his characteristic Amsterdam accent when we approach him.

On further questioning, he of course understands what we mean. "Mathieu van der Poel obviously picks his battles, and when he's not around, it's tough to win a Monument," Cornelisse honestly assesses. The Dutchman, in 2020, participated in both Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy. Back then, he finished tenth in the August edition of the Italian race, and in Liège, he managed an impressive sixth place after he had claimed the overall BinckBanck Tour title the day before with a phenomenal solo finish.

Alpecin-Deceuninck is "still growing"

The men of Alpecin-Deceuninck prefer to take things step by step, as we can infer from Cornelisse's words. "We are still growing and improving every year," says the sports director. And that's true, because after a year with victories in two Monuments, a World Championship win, and two overall points classification wins in grand tours, there's obviously no reason to be even slightly disappointed in Bergamo.