While the Tour de France remains, by far, the biggest race in cycling for some riders - like Mathieu van der Poel - it offers little in the way of motivation. For 2025, the Dutchman is more focused on completing his set of world titles with the mountain bike cross-country rainbow jersey.
Van der Poel is currently injured and taking time out of his cyclocross season, a discipline in which he has been a six-time world champion. He's also won one road world title so far in his illustrious career from the Glasgow World Championships in 2023.
However, despite two appearances at Mountain Bike Worlds in 2018 and 2023, that title still eludes him, as he only managed a third place and DNF, respectively.
"If I could choose, I would like to become world champion mountain biker this year. I haven't succeeded yet and it keeps playing in the back of my mind," Van der Poel told Sporza, with an eye also on the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
"I have one more chance for that: LA will almost certainly be the last Games I participate in. It would be great to try to finish in LA on the mountain bike."
In comparison to his excitement about more off-road racing in the summer, Van der Poel is less enthusiastic about the Tour de France. It has characterised his July for the past four seasons, however, he still describes it as "a race that I don't really like".
His best edition came in 2021 when he won the second stage and famously went into the yellow jersey, honouring his late grandfather Raymond Poulidor, who never achieved the feat. Since that triumph up the Mûr-de-Bretagne, he's yet to win a stage at the Tour.
"Apart from trying to win stages and wear the yellow jersey, there's not much to gain for me in the Tour," he told the Flemish broadcaster, admitting that the presence of sprinter Jasper Philipsen helps him find the motivation.
"I'd rather ride five races in which I'm competing to win than 20 stages in which I'm not competing for the win half the time.
"With Jasper on board, my goal is always to help him win as many stages as possible. I like that and it also takes the pressure off me."
While Alpecin-Deceuninck are yet to announce his full road schedule, Van der Poel did shed some light on what he'll be doing after targeting his seventh 'cross world title in February.
"Unlike last year, I probably won't continue until Liège-Bastogne-Liège. It will simply be until Paris-Roubaix," said Van der Poel, also revealing that he could race Paris-Nice for the first time as "new races provide new impulses".
He'll likely follow a familiar one-day campaign from Milan-San Remo right the way through to Paris-Roubaix, with a third successive victory in northern France and a fourth Tour of Flanders title as key goals.
But despite his absolute dominance in Flanders last season, he's aware that the return of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) to the cobbled arena will make breaking the record for the most de Ronde victories, with four, a much tougher task.
"It will be difficult to beat him, but it is a challenge that I am happy to accept," admitted Van der Poel. "We are thinking about how we can close the gap on Pogačar because that will be necessary to beat him in the Tour.
"Perhaps that can be done by slightly different and more difficult training. That is why I am skipping the World Cup CX in Benidorm, for example, because a training camp in that same period will make me better towards the spring."
Van der Poel and Pogačar are the top two active Monument riders in the world, having won eight of the last 10 between them and having a total of six and seven wins, respectively. Both were dominant in 2024 and a clash at Flanders in 2025 should see repeats of the exciting duels they had in 2022 and 2023.
