The Tour de France may have just finished but Mathieu van der Poel is already looking ahead to the Road World Championships in just under two weeks' time.
The Dutchman completed a successful Tour for his Alpecin-Deceuninck team, helping his sprinter Jasper Philipsen to take four stage wins plus the points jersey. However, with illness striking midway through the race, his own campaign was less successful than he had hoped.
Now Van der Poel is looking forward to Glasgow, with his goal of the road race coming on August 6. He has recovered from his illness and is now planning ahead, he told NOS on Sunday.
"I'm coming back through now," he said. "I feel a lot better. Hopefully, that's a good sign for the World Championships. Personally, I'm not satisfied, but I can give a reason for it.
"What am I going to do now? Something to eat and drink, two criteriums and then take it easy towards the World Championships. Maybe I'll do a few more hard training sessions to keep the body active."
The hilly 271.1km Worlds course around Glasgow should be well suited to Van der Poel as he seeks his first rainbow jersey on the road to go with five won during his cyclo-cross career. He's set to face competitions from the likes of Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen on a day which should favour the strongest sprinters in the peloton.
On Sunday, Van der Poel rounded out his Tour de France by once again delivering the lead-out to the strongest sprinter of the race, Philipsen. The Belgian couldn't add a fifth stage win to his tally on the Champs-Elysées, but Van der Poel said he and his team "couldn't have wished for more" from the Tour.
"I think we did it perfectly again with the team," he told Eurosport after the stage. "It was very hectic, but I think I did a good lead-out to drop him off. He just missed the legs a bit I think, but he has already ridden such a great Tour. Four stage wins, the green, we couldn't have wished for more.
"Maybe I could have done my own sprint, but I think Jasper showed how fast he is. We were still watching the video from [Paris] last year – how fast he shot away there... Today he just had some lesser legs, he told me. That's nothing to be ashamed of."
Van der Poel's own race was less personally successful. The 28-year-old made four breakaways but couldn't add to his stage win and spell in yellow two years ago. He said that, due to illness, he wasn't at his top level during the few chances he did have to win stages.
"As Classics riders, we don't get too many chances. And in week two I was sick," he said. "During the two chances I had there, I wasn't at my top level.
"That was unfortunate, but I'm already happy that in the third week I got a bit better and recovered. Today I was already pretty good again. I'm happy with that."
