After Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen complained about rival teams' tactics at the E3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem, Alpecin-Deceuninck's head DS Christoph Roodhooft has stated that the team "doesn't care" what strategy the opposition tries to use during Sunday's Tour of Flanders.
Van der Poel said teams riding full gas after an early crash left him and the main peloton three minutes behind a large break was "something we would never do", while Philipsen was similarly annoyed after Gent-Wevelgem when he thought more teams should have gambled in the chase behind solo winner Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
With the final cobbled warm-up now completed at Dwars door Vlaanderen, only Flanders remains in the Flemish WorldTour Spring Classics. Will teams try again to disrupt Alpecin-Deceuninck after Van der Poel dominated both the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix last year? On Sunday, the team will just focus on themselves according to Roodhooft.
"I don't care. I don't know if teams will try something and I don't care if they do," Roodhooft told Cyclingnews on Wednesday.
"At this time of year, we have to trust ourselves. I think we have proven in the last three, or four years that we are able to win in the Classics, and the more we win the more difficult the goal is to achieve again in the end. But we have to trust in our own potential.
"We work for it and sometimes it comes, but for the moment it seems we are on the right side of the track."
That potential lies almost completely with Alpecin-Deceuninck's star rider Van der Poel for Sunday, where he will look for a record fourth Tour of Flanders title and his eighth Monument Classic triumph, which would see him overtake Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) as the rider with most victories in that category in the current peloton.
After another display of his dominance at E3 last Friday, less than a week after he followed each of Pogačar's attacks before outsprinting at the first Monument of the season – Milan-San Remo – it looks as though Van der Poel could be at his career-best.
Roodhooft, alongside his brother Phillip and the whole Alpecin-Deceuninck setup, has been vital to cultivating Van der Poel's successful career, ever since he was a teenager, on the road and in cyclocross. Is this the best they've ever seen him heading into Flanders, despite his already winning it three times?
"Possibly," said Roodhooft in response to that very question, "he was very good in E3, and in San Remo as well.
"So far all is going to plan, let's say, so we will see what happens next now on Sunday."
In contrast to last season when he escaped to sunny Spain before Flanders, and with such good weather in Belgium where he lives, Van der Poel opted to stay and train at home ahead of the main event this weekend.
There was nothing to that decision other than pragmatism, though. "It's two flights again," said Roodhooft. "Also, in the end, a day that you waste as well."
Roodhooft also confirmed there were no illness concerns for Van der Poel despite the blocked nose he had following E3, quickly shutting down a question about how he was doing health-wise ahead of Flanders.
Van der Poel didn't race either of Gent-Wevelgem, which he did last year, or Dwars door Vlaanderen, which he won in 2022 before defeating Pogačar at Flanders. These next 10 days will be essential for his race given how much he values the Ronde and Roubaix, not forgetting that he arrives at both as the defending champion.
"I think everybody understands Flanders and Roubaix are maybe the most important races for me," said Van der Poel after his solo win at E3. "But I think I can say the Spring Classics have already been a big success.
"[Winning in Sam Remo] gave me confidence, but I'm also realistic enough that every race we start from scratch again.
"There are so many things that can happen, a flat tyre or wrong positioning somewhere, so it's easy to say that I will be in front in Flanders, but this race is not so easy. The main goal is to just try to be at my best in Flanders."
