The most incredible pedaling machine of the moment is 26 years old and is Dutch by its father and French by its mother, but Belgian by its Antwerp Flemish accent. She is given favorite for a double on the Tour of Flanders, Sunday April 4. But it can also derail. Wednesday March 31, under the sun, Mathieu van der Poel, who does not like the heat, finished 58e of the A Travers la Flandre cycling race, more than 1 min 40 s from his compatriot Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers). “A day without. But Sunday will be another day. “
Son of the Dutch cyclist Adrie van der Poel (winner of the Tour of Flanders in 1986, of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 1988, of the Amstel Gold Race in 1990 and cyclo-cross world champion in 1996), he is the small- son of Raymond Poulidor – Corinne Poulidor met her future husband at a discotheque in Martinique in 1987. “The eternal second” said that Mathieu had somehow avoided him saying goodbye to his youth too quickly, because he recognized himself in him: “Mathieu? He fears nothing, said Raymond Poulidor a few months before his disappearance, in November 2019. He’s a go-getter! “
When the Tour de France left for Brussels in 2019, Raymond had already returned to the evening of his life, as in a foreign country. He signed autographs with peaceful patience. With him, we wandered in his past as in a museum. The cyclist, symbol of the “thirty glorious years”, gave more and more the impression of being a poster in the waiting room of an abandoned station. As if he was waiting for the evening train.
“With grandpa we are overwhelmed. ” Adrie, 61, referred to her stepfather last week to the present tense, still calling him grandpa. “It was initially a time when dietetics did not exist. Then, then, we didn’t choose our races, eh, it’s not like Mathieu… ” Understand that Mathieu “Do what he wants” in the Belgian team Alpecin-Fenix of which he is the leader.
“Grandpa was smiling. Mathieu is like him: he smiles and in addition he wins ”
Adrie resumes, her voice covered by the sound of a lawn mower:
“But in our time you still had to smile at the public, at the supporters, at the camera, at the sponsors. And grandpa was smiling. Mathieu is like him: he smiles and he wins! He remained the same little kid when he was 6 years old. In fact, he only thinks of driving. And still roll. Here, even when he is resting, he rolls. “
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