Mathieu van der Poel, the present males’s highway world champion, has signed a brand new five-year contract with Alpecin-Deceuninck, which is able to preserve him using for the Belgian staff till the tip of the 2028 season.
The Dutchman signed the brand new deal after he was instrumental within the staff’s second successive Milan-San Remo victory final weekend. Van der Poel gave a sterling lead-out for Jasper Philipsen to triumph on the Through Roma, outsprinting each Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogačar for the win.
In addition to his new contract with the staff run by brothers Philip and Christoph Roodhooft, Van der Poel additionally signed a brand new ten-year contract as an envoy for Canyon bikes, who’re additionally Alpecin’s long-term bike associate.
Van der Poel’s new deal is the most recent in a latest sequence of long-term contracts in biking. His earlier contract together with his staff was set to run out on the finish of the 2025 season.
“This extension is a logical selection for me,” Van der Poel mentioned. “I’ve felt notably snug within the constructions of Philip and Christoph Roodhooft from the start. I’ve grown along with the staff and I nonetheless really feel that we’re making progress. And though we’ve already achieved many successes collectively, I’m nonetheless hungry for extra.
“Not unimportant within the truth is that Alpecin-Deceuninck can be multi-disciplinary. That is the proper staff to proceed to mix highway, mountain bike and cyclocross.”
Van der Poel made his first steps in biking within the colors of the Roodhooft brothers’ staff. Based on a press launch from Alpecin-Deceuninck, the brand new settlement signifies that Van der Poel can have ridden beneath their stewardship for “at least 18 years”.
The discharge additionally states that, on the finish of the 2028 season, Van der Poel will determine on a yr by yr foundation whether or not to proceed professionally using on the highway at that time.
“There isn’t a doubt that we’re delighted with Mathieu van der Poel’s prolonged settlement,” the Roodhoofts mentioned. “We had a long-term plan with him from the start. The multidisciplinary imaginative and prescient was an necessary facet of this. We rapidly discovered one another in that as nicely.
“Over time we’ve confirmed that our construction and imaginative and prescient works. It feels notably good that we will additionally proceed within the coming years. Identical to Mathieu, we as a staff are nonetheless hungry for extra successes, and the world champion performs an necessary function in that, together with a lot of different abilities we’ve on board, each within the males’s and ladies’s groups.”
Van der Poel made his 2024 highway season debut at Milan-San Remo. The world champion chased down a sequence of late assaults from Pogačar, Matej Mohorič and Tom Pidcock to be able to tee up Philipsen for the win.
The Dutchman is anticipated to focus on the Tour of Flanders as soon as extra within the weeks forward and also will look to defend the Paris-Roubaix title that he gained final yr.
