Mathieu van der Poel is cleared to race the Critérium du Dauphiné, Alpecin-Deceuninck confirmed, ending speculation over his fitness following his head-over-heels crash in the Nové Mesto MTB World Cup last month.
The Dutch superstar fractured his wrist in the Czech Republic, but has recovered enough to stick to his Tour de France build-up plan, team officials confirmed.
“Mathieu was very motivated to do everything possible to still be able to ride the Dauphiné,” team boss Christoph Roodhooft told Sporza. “Despite a painful wrist, he tried to train. It didn’t go optimally, but still very well. It turned out better than expected. It could have been worse.”
Van der Poel, 30, returns to road racing in what will be his first career appearance at the Dauphiné, the traditional warmup race for the Tour de France, a race that MVDP has a love-hate relationship with.
Van der Poel is expected to target the early stages and sharpen his race legs after missing a training camp due to the injury.
Van der Poel last raced on the road — well, the pavé — in his dramatic duel over Tadej Pogačar in Paris-Roubaix in April. His accidental detour in mountain biking at least did not completely derail his Tour participation.
The decision to race the Dauphiné came after team officials realized that spring king Van der Poel was under-cooked and not in ideal shape in the past few editions of the Tour.
“Last year we had the idea that he lacked some competition rhythm in the first week of the Tour. That is why we wanted to approach it differently this time,” Roodhooft said. “It was a foregone conclusion that Mathieu wanted extra competition. That is why it is important that he can still participate in the Dauphiné. That is crucial for the preparation for the Tour.”
Van der Poel will join teammates Tobias Bayer, Michael Gogl, Xandro Meurisse, Johan Price-Pejtersen, Gianni Vermeersch, and Lars Boven.
MVDP’s appearance is another marquee name to an already-stacked Dauphiné start list.
Blow for Picnic-PostNL: Degenkolb, Jakobsen out of Tour as relegation pressure mounts
Team Picnic-PostNL’s fight for WorldTour survival just got harder.
The Dutch squad will head into this summer’s Tour de France without two of their marquee names, as John Degenkolb and Fabio Jakobsen will both be sidelined due to lingering health setbacks.
The timing couldn’t be worse. With the three-year promotion-relegation cycle concluding at the end of 2025, every WorldTour point is vital. Missing such top names, especially sprinter ace Jakobsen, leaves Picnic-PostNL dangerously exposed during the most important race of the season.
Degenkolb, a former Paris-Roubaix winner, is still recovering from a brutal crash at the Tour of Flanders, which left him with fractures to his collarbone, elbow, and wrist.
“He still needs follow-up surgery, so July is just not realistic,” said team doctor Camiel Aldershof.
Jakobsen, one of the team’s few proven grand tour stage-winners, has been sidelined since undergoing iliac artery surgery in both legs in April. While his rehab is progressing, he remains far from race-ready, officials said.
“Fabio had a successful operation and good rehabilitation so far. Firstly, after the needed time off the bike to fully recover from the operation, he was able to start riding indoors at low intensity for 30 minutes per day and we’ve steadily built that up,” Aldershof said Friday. “Recently, he’s been able to return to training outside a bit which is great, but still at a lower intensity than is required to build up the base again for a three-week grand tour.”
Rehab and recovery ❤️
Working hard and continuing to build to come back from their injuries, unfortunately a race as intense as @LeTour will come too quickly this year for @johndegenkolb and @FabioJakobsen
We’ll miss you guys but are excited to have you back in action when… pic.twitter.com/ziolA3qf0o
— Team Picnic PostNL (@picnicpostnl) June 6, 2025
The team’s Tour squad will be finalized later this month.
Picnic-PostNL faces a critical summer and its future in cycling’s top tier may depend on salvaging points from a roster missing its heaviest hitters.
In the latest rolling team rankings over the past three seasons, Picnic-PostNL is clinging to the final and secure 18th spot, barely 200 points ahead of Cofidis. XDS-Astana bounded up four spots into the safe zone at 17th after a stunning points reversal in the first half of 2025.
The team is hopeful both will be back later this season, just in time for when it might count the most.
“At the start of the year both John and Fabio were on our long list for the Tour de France, but for both the race comes too early,” said head coach Rudi Kemna. “Now our priority is to get them both back to full health and have a good training block where they can return to their high level, before we then look to a race program for the second half of the season.”