\nForm proven, risk unnecessary<\/p>\n
There had been genuine uncertainty on Saturday evening. Van der Poel himself admitted after his Omloop triumph that \u201cnothing has been decided yet\u201d regarding Kuurne, adding that the team would discuss it later on the bus.<\/p>\n
By Sunday morning, the calculation had shifted. \u201cYesterday in the Omloop, Mathieu also showed that he is already more than good enough,\u201d Roodhooft said. \u201cThen in training, there is, for example, less risk of crashing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The subtext was clear. After a chaotic, crash-heavy Omloop that left multiple riders hospitalised, there was little to gain and more to risk by doubling up. Van der Poel had already demonstrated sharp form, decisive power on the Molenberg and Muur, and the ability to finish off a race solo in harsh conditions.<\/p>\n
With Tirreno\u2013Adriatico looming, restraint made sense.<\/p>\n
Controlled build toward Italy<\/p>\n
Rather than line up again in Kuurne, Van der Poel will remain in Belgium to train through the coming week. From there, he will travel to Italy to begin Tirreno\u2013Adriatico on Monday, 9 March.<\/p>\n
The decision reflects a broader pattern in modern Classics preparation. Winning form in late February is valuable, but protecting it is often more important. After showing he could attack from distance, survive chaos on the Molenberg and ride clear on the Muur, there was no urgent need to prove anything further.<\/p>\n
Omloop delivered confirmation. Kuurne was optional.<\/p>\n
By stepping back, Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech have chosen control over accumulation and preserved their leader for the bigger objectives that lie ahead.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Form proven, risk unnecessary There had been genuine uncertainty on Saturday evening. Van der Poel himself admitted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[221189,64,63,169409,784,254989,77973,231522,85],"class_list":["post-513093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-alpecin-premier-tech","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-christoph-roodhooft","tag-cycling","tag-kuurne-bruxelles-kuurne","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-omloop-het-nieuwsblad","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}