Alpecin-Fenix management, the Roodhooft brothers, Christoph and Philip, talked of van der Poel joining van Aert in the hunt for the green jersey at the 2022 Tour de France when speaking at the Kristallen Fiets award ceremony this week.
“When I hear van Aert say that he is going for the green jersey, I think, ‘We’ll see about that for a while,’” Christoph Roodhooft told Het Laatste Nieuws. “If everything goes normally, that is a very realistic target for us. I think of Jasper Philipsen, or Mathieu van der Poel (for the points classification).”
Christoph’s brother, Philip Roodhooft, doubled down on the van der Poel portion of the statement, extolling his virtues.
“Mathieu is the perfect rider to win the green jersey,” Philip Roodhooft said. “The green jersey, and stage wins.”
Van der Poel had an incredible run of six days in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, seizing the race lead on the second stage and only relinquishing the title in the mountains. He then went on to his next big objective of the season, the mountain bike cross country at the Olympics, but crashed hard on the big jump, injuring his back and putting him out of the medals.
“I hear him less and less about that back. That’s a good sign,” Christoph Roodhooft said. “He does a lot of core exercises to strengthen his back. It’s looking good and as it develops, I’m assuming it won’t bother him in the long run. Mathieu and the rest of the team are well on schedule.”
Roodhooft said that two near-misses in major races – eighth at the worlds and third at Roubaix – came at least partially because of the injuries he sustained in the crash.
“At a certain point he didn’t enjoy cycling anymore, because it was often a battle against the pain,” Roodhooft said. “The fact that he wasn’t top at the worlds and in Paris-Roubaix made it difficult. The fall was a huge disappointment for Mathieu. He really suffered from that blow for a while and then the back problems followed.”
