Mathieu van der Poel's lackluster performance at Strade Bianche raised eyebrows among some, however, the Alpecin-Deceunick team leader came away from his first road race of the 2023 season coolheaded after finishing an uncharacteristic 15th place in Siena.
The 28-year-old wrapped up a long cyclocross campaign at the world championships in early February, which he won ahead of Wout van Aert. Since claiming the rainbow bands, van der Poel on February 5, van der Poel has enjoyed a few days in Dubai and then trained in Spain for the spring Classics. He and Alpecin-Deceuninck were confident of his form before Strade Bianche but he struggled and finish 1:46 down on winner and Classics rival Tom Pidcock.
At the finish in Piazza del Campo, van der Poel weaved his way through the crowds but dismissed concerns about his performance.
"The feeling was not too bad," van der Poel said.
"Personally, I did not expect the best version of myself yet. I was good enough to race but not to win such a tough race as my first competition. I need some course toughness, and that's normal."
"I survived the most difficult gravel section pretty well, but the legs were just not good enough to answer the decisive attack."
Van der Poel remains confident that his form will return in the coming weeks. When asked if he was at all worried about his relatively slow return to form, he claimed his performance at Strade Bianche wasn't disappointing.
"Next week, I will continue to build up my shape in Tirreno Adriatico. And that is exactly what we had in mind when we planned my race calendar," he said.
"We knew before that the period between the Cyclocross World Championships and Strade Bianche was pretty short. I tried to be good here, but as I said, the best version of myself is yet to come."
