In the family context, Mathieu van der Poel had to settle for second place in the big races for a long time: Whether at the Amstel Gold Race 2019, the victories at the Tour of Flanders 2020 and 2022, his only one-day victory to date at the Tour de France 2021 or his triumph at Milan-San Remo 2023 - another family member, either his father Adrie van der Poel or his grandfather Raymond Poulidor, was always on the winners' list beforehand.
It wasn't until 2023 that Mathieu van der Poel brought his own races into the family history: Even Adrie van der Poel and Poulidor had never managed to win Paris-Roubaix in the spring and the Road World Championships in the summer. Welcome to one of the most successful cycling families.
Raymond Poulidor as the favourite of the French
Raymond Poulidor won a total of 195 victories during his career in the 1960s and 1970s, including Milan-San Remo and the Vuelta a Espana. However, the Frenchman is best known for the race he never won: the Tour de France. He finished on the podium eight times in the Tour, came second three times and third five times. He never wore the yellow jersey. Poulidor was virtually the eternal runner-up - and thus won the sympathy of his compatriots. He died in 2019 at the age of 83.
As a result, he did not live to see his grandson's great successes in road cycling - such as his Tour stage win at the Mur-de-Bretagne in 2021, for which he also received the piece of clothing that Poulidor was always denied: the yellow jersey. "It's a shame that he's no longer here. I can imagine that Grandad would have been very proud. It would have been a nice photo," said Mathieu van der Poel at the time.
However, Poulidor also recognised early on that his grandson is a huge talent. "He has the genes of his father and grandfather. And he's better than us," he said in spring 2019.
Adrie van der Poel as a successful classic hunter
Both families were once united by the marriage of Poulidor's daughter Corinne to the Dutchman Adrie van der Poel, who himself had a successful career as a professional cyclist between 1981 and 2000: he won two stages of the Tour de France, the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Amstel Gold Race and the Cyclocross World Championships in 1996.
Adrie van der Poel also wore the Tour's yellow jersey for one day in 1983 - meaning that he also had this success ahead of his son. However, he only wore the leader's jersey for one day; Mathieu van der Poel already has six "maillot jaunes" in his collection.
With so much family cycling influence, there was almost no alternative to becoming a professional cyclist for brothers David and Mathieu van der Poel. Both started early with successes in cyclocross, but Mathieu, who was three years younger, soon proved to be much more talented. In addition to his successes on the road, he also won five world championship titles in cyclocross. He won the last title at the beginning of 2023.
David van der Poel, however, also became a professional cyclist and, like his brother, rode for Alpecin-Deceuninck, but recently hung up his bike at the age of 31. However, Mathieu van der Poel is the third generation of the family to leave his mark on cycling. And he is likely to add many more victories to the family history in the future.
