‘I had incredible legs’ – Mathieu van der Poel puts final touches on Road World Championships preparation with staggering Luxembourg solo ride

Will his pessimism prove to be ill-founded? That remains to be seen, but his mammoth ride in Luxembourg – a record for a solo ride this century – underlines his form and ambition.

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“It wasn’t the plan before the start, but I actually found myself alone right from the beginning of the race, and I just wanted to ride at my own tempo all day long,” Van der Poel said after his mind-boggling effort.

“At first I thought the pursuers were going to come back, but I just kept riding at my power output, and the gap grew again. That’s when I decided to just go all out until the finish.”

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Van der Poel gained a five-minute gap over the peloton during the stage, which included over 3,000 metres of climbing – around 500 short of Sunday’s road race. He eventually reached the finish over a minute ahead of anyone else, with Mikkel Honoré taking second on the day, 1:04 down.

“I had incredible legs today, but I think the past few days weren’t really going the way I wanted. I was coming from Spain, maybe I trained a bit too much, and today I felt really good,” Van der Poel said.

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