Alpecin-Deceuninck have revealed Mathieu van der Poel’s race calendar for the remainder of the 2024 season, with the five-day Tour de Luxembourg set to be his final appearance before the World Championships in Zürich.
Van der Poel will defend his road race world title in Switzerland on a brutally tough hilly course which takes in over 4000m of elevation gain throughout its 274km in laps around Zurich. The elite men’s road race will take place on Sunday, September 29.
It’s a course that could be more suited to the top one-day climbers Tadej Pogačar and former world champion Remco Evenepoel, however, Dutch national coach Koos Moerenhout said Van der Poel “should be able to handle Zurich” in conversation with In de Leidestrui but “he will have to be at his best to ride well there”.
For only his 30th race day of the season, Van der Poel will take the start of the Renewi Tour, the only WorldTour stage race in Belgium, for five days of tough racing between Riemst and Geraardsbergen from August 28 to September 1.
It’s a race he won overall in 2020 when it was the BinckBank Tour and he’ll look to do the same alongside helping top sprinter Jasper Philipsen to more stage wins as he did in the Tour de France, where the Belgian took three.
Van der Poel will then stay in Belgium to take on the European Championships road race on September 15 from Heusden-Zolder to Hasselt. It will be on his favoured terrain in Limburg, Belgium and is one of the titles he’s missed out on in his illustrious career, having finished runner-up in 2018 behind Matteo Trentin in Glasgow.
His first appearance at the Skoda Tour de Luxembourg will follow the week before Worlds from September 18-22 as the final tune-up.
Alpecin also revealed a jam-packed end-of-season race calendar for their other big star, Philipsen, with the Belgian sprinter scheduled to ride the Renewi Tour, Bemer Cyclassics, European Championships (if selected), Super 8 Classic, Gooikse Pijl, Binche-Chimay-Binche, Sparkassen Munsterland and Paris-Tours.
