Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceunick) is not looking for excuses after his defeat in the Tour of Flanders against a 'clearly stronger' Tadej Pogačar, despite a high-speed crash during the race and health problems that have compromised his training in the previous weeks.

The Dutch champion finally revealed the truth about his physical condition after the race: 'I haven't been very healthy since E3, and that certainly had an impact. I had a bad cold.' Van der Poel was forced to take antibiotics for three days, as confirmed by DS Christoph Roodhooft:

'He texted me on April 1st saying he was very sick. I told him not to joke, but he actually had to take antibiotics for three days.'

Further complicating the day for the Dutch champion was a bad fall 126 km from the finish that forced him into a costly chase.

'I was lucky not to have suffered more serious injuries after the high-speed crash. All things considered, I'm happy to be on the podium,' commented the former world champion.

Despite the difficulties, Van der Poel showed great sportsmanship: 'I don't want to use the illness as an excuse, it was clear that Tadej was the strongest. To keep up with him I would have had to be at 110%, as has been demonstrated once again.'

All eyes are now on next Sunday's Paris-Roubaix, where Van der Poel will be looking for a third consecutive victory: 'I hope to be completely ready for Sunday to try another shot at Roubaix. It's a different race, where you also need a bit of luck, we'll see what we can do.'

Sprint Cycling Photo