Every Mathieu van der Poel Monument performance ranked

Cyclist
Every Mathieu van der Poel Monument performance ranked

From a victory lap in Roubaix to a surprise cameo at Il Lombardia, a photo finish with Wout van Aert and a mud-scarred sprint, Mathieu van der Poel has a fair few anecdotes to share from the Classics.

With a Monument career spanning over five years and 17 Monument appearances, Van der Poel has competed in all five of cycling’s Monuments. This is the less impressive statistic though. In total, he has a total of ten Monument podium finishes including six race wins.

As the dust settles on Paris-Roubaix 2024, let’s look back on Van der Poel’s 17 Monument performances and rank all 17 rides – recounting the best (and the worst) of his one-day exploits.

This ranking is not based on the arbitrary finishing position. It will factor in panache, pizzazz and pathos into its ranking position. Prepare for Mathieu’s ego to be inflated, as we dissect each of his 17 Monument performances.

MVDP’s Finishing Position: 2nd

This might be the most frustrating MVDP Monument to watch. Starting as the reigning champion and, therefore, the most marked man in the bunch, Van der Poel was rightfully bullish going into the 2021 Tour of Flanders.  

QuickStep (remember them?) gambled to their advantage, constantly putting the naive Van der Poel under pressure. Forced to chase, close gaps and show his hand early, Van der Poel was the most daring on the day – that doesn’t necessarily mean he had the inalienable right to take the victory.

By dropping all his competitors apart from the Dane Kasper Asgreen, Van der Poel – a powerhouse sprinter fresh from UCI WorldTour sprint wins the month prior – duly signed up for a duel with Asgreen in the finishing straight. Surprisingly, Van der Poel pulled up before the line, yielding the win to Asgreen.

Falling short on the day, this Tour of Flanders is the ‘one that got away’. This two-up sprint probably replays in Van der Poel’s nightmares. I know it features in mine.

9. Tour of Flanders 2022

MVDP’s Finishing Position: 1st

Mathieu’s second Flanders title came with plenty of peaks and troughs. In a spring where Wout van Aert contracted Covid, Van der Poel emerged as the out-and-out favourite for another Classics title.

After a string of impressive Classics performances in 2022 already, Flanders debutant Tadej Pogačar was an eager beaver in Flanders. Stepping up to the plate in Wout’s absence, Pogi and MVDP quickly emerged as the two strongest riders on the day. Testing the former Flanders champion, Pogačar was on the verge of dropping Van der Poel up the Oude Kwaremont – leaving the Dutchman dangling at a critical point in the race.

Van der Poel played along, clutching onto the wheel of the then-reigning Tour de France champion in the hope that the woes of 2021 would not repeat itself. In a frantic final kilometre where the victory almost slipped away after allowing a chasing group to catch up, Van der Poel raised his arms in the air, proving his Flandrian mettle. Even if its place in the cycling zeitgeist has been eclipsed by Pogačar’s Merckx-esque debut in the cobbled Classics, this Flanders victory is one of Van der Poel’s toughest Monument titles to date, but certainly not one of his best.

8. Paris-Roubaix 2021

MVDP’s Finishing Position: 3rd

Of course, Paris-Roubaix 2021 was a Monument for the ages. Filled with rain, mud baths and plenty of drama, the autumnal Paris-Roubaix gave us everything we wanted and more from a cycling spectacle.

On his Roubaix debut, Van der Poel emerged from the muddy trench of Arenberg in a promising position. With the race torn apart across the damp French countryside, Van der Poel surfaced in a leading group of three alongside the eventual winner Sonny Colbrelli and Belgian youngster Florian Vermeersch. On a day when many failed to rise to the occasion, MVDP shoehorned himself in for a podium.

Preceded by his reputation on the day, Van der Poel was forced to lead out the sprint in the final desperate dash to the line. After a cinematic day of racing, a bronze medal remains a sour sign-off for this most epic of Sundays in Hell. Hard done by on the road, Mathieu at least entertained us on this cinematic day of racing.

7. Tour of Flanders 2023

MVDP’s Finishing Position: 2nd

It’s easy to forget about Van der Poel at the 2023 Tour of Flanders – it was all about Tadej Pogačar, after all. However, look past all the Merckx superlatives and GOAT debate column inches, and we can spot a strong performance from MVDP in 2023.

The 2023 Tour of Flanders finally offered the much-anticipated showdown between any-and-all Classics names, from Pogačar to Mads Pedersen, Wout van Aert and beyond. No asterisks, no excuses. 

The race did not disappoint either. Breathless from the start, the race opened up at 100 kilometres to go, making for a brutal clash of the Classics titans. In a ding-dong battle between rivals old and new, Van der Poel wasn’t afraid to roll the dice, crucially placing the nails in the coffin of yet another Van Aert Flanders campaign.

Ultimately, Van der Poel was second best on the day. That’s not to take away from his solid effort in the chase group, which saw him overhaul several rivals to take the silver medal on the day. Second place in the Avengers End Game of bike races isn’t bad going.

6. Milan-San Remo 2024

MVDP’s Finishing Position: 10th

This is the underdog of the list. Although MVDP didn’t crack the top five, the Dutchman was all over the race like a rash in the most recent edition of La Classicissima. 

Doubling up as a domestique-turned-protagonist, Van der Poel was sure to mark moves and shake up proceedings once the race reached the decisive Poggio di Sanremo. By following Pogačar’s stinging attacks up the climb, Van der Poel’s mere aura placed pressure on the group behind to close the gap – offering his Alpecin-Decuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen a red carpet ride to the line.

Clocking in as a domestique on the Via Roma, Van der Poel displayed his versatility and loyalty loud and clear. Served on a fine china plate for Tour de France green jersey winner Philipsen, Alpecin-Deceunick claimed yet another Monument victory.

Philipsen is indebted to Van der Poel – he certainly owes him a beer or two. The Dutchman put in a shift and a half to engineer the perfect Philipsen-friendly finish. In 2024, Van der Poel was the video game final boss of Milan-San Remo.

5. Milan-San Remo 2023

MVDP’s Finishing Position: 1st

After an incognito start to his 2023 road season, Van der Poel’s fate was unknown on the build-up to Milan-San Remo 2023. 

Holding onto the cast-iron group of four on the Poggio in Filippo Ganna, Van Aert and Pogačar, Mathieu made his presence felt over the top of the climb. With a picture-perfect acceleration over the top of the Poggio, it was going to be hard for anyone to follow the wheel of the cyclocross star down into the city of San Remo.

A descending masterclass later and he was up, up and away. All that was left was an emotional victory salute in homage to his grandfather, Raymond Poulidor. This is how you win Milan-San Remo — an A+ effort.

4. Tour of Flanders 2020

MVDP’s Finishing Position: 1st

The tense Cold War between Van der Poel and Van Aert never felt as icy as it did in the Covid-tainted 2020 edition of the Tour of Flanders. In the shadow of a cluttered re-structured calendar, the 2020 edition saw a paradigm shift in the Classics world.

Following an acrobatic crash from Julian Alaphilippe in the leading group, Wout and Mathieu renewed their rivalry up the final climbs of the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg, gearing themselves up for the Hollywood-directed finale to this Tour of Flanders.

Unable to distance each other on the hills, the childhood rivals were content to settle this in a sprint. Regardless of the empty roadsides, you could hear the cycling world collectively lean into their TV screens to see how this skirmish would end up. Skin-to-skin almost in a final lunge to the line, Van Aert and Van der Poel’s clash never felt more intimate. The Messi vs Ronaldo of the cycling world, this clash in Flanders was cycling’s El Clásico.

Despite the Michael Bay-style race, MVDP’s maiden Monument win needs more oomph to move it up on this list. Who knows, maybe Alaphilippe would have pipped the others to the line.

3. Paris-Roubaix 2023

MVDP’s Finishing Position: 1st

After two previous appearances in the Hell of the North, it’s fair to say that Van der Poel had an on-and-off relationship with the race. Denied in a sprint in 2021 and dropped in 2022, his hopes of Roubaix glory seemed to be diminishing by the year.

In 2023, things started to favour him in a race where lady luck holds the balance of power. In a flyer over the Carrefour de l’Arbre alongside Van Aert, Mathieu made the difference at the exit of the sector. Or, at least, Wout’s tyres made the difference here. After a puncture for the Belgian, the advantage was in the Alpecin-Deceuninck corner.

As teammate Jasper Philipsen rejoined the mix, the team’s plan had worked out a treat. With Van Aert trapped in checkmate, MVDP could relish in the glory as he prepared to enter the Colosseum of the Roubaix velodrome. In short: he came, he saw, and he certainly conquered.

2. Tour of Flanders 2024

MVDP’s Finishing Position: 1st

Now we’re stepping up a gear – we are into the territory of the untouchable Van der Poel Monument rides. Nothing quite compares to these final two performances, kicking off with his record-equalling win at the 2024 Tour of Flanders.

Rivals tried and failed to outfox Van der Poel and his Alpecin-Deceuninck for much of the opening phase of the race. Once the Tour of Flanders entered its meaty section of steep cobble kickers, he wasn’t afraid to test his legs and stretch out the favourites.

Lift-off came early as he oozed with confidence from his now mud-stained rainbow jersey. Up and away he went with 45km to go, and no rider even came close to following him. While others walked up the Koppenberg, the Dutchman rocked and rolled with a boyish swagger that his competitors could only envy.

A foregone conclusion from the moment he saw daylight with the main body of riders, Van der Poel’s one-minute margin of victory places this ride into another stratosphere of Monument performances. You’ve got to admit as well, lifting his rainbow-coated Canyon bike in the air was the most badass race celebration possible. 10/10, there’s no better way to win a Monument than this – or is there?

1. Paris-Roubaix 2024

MVDP’s Finishing Position: 1st

Recent, I know, but Mathieu van der Poel’s magnum opus has got to be this year’s Paris-Roubaix. 

It’s rare to see a rider trace the path of L’Enfer du Nord in such an effortless and collected manner. With Alpecin controlling the race with an iron-fist, and with other favourites on their hands and knees by the time the race entered the Trouée d’Arenberg, the sharks were circling around the Roubaix Velodrome. In a characteristically biblical seated effort, the peloton was left in Van der Poel’s wake. In an attack for glory longer than anyone had dared to attempt in the 21st century, there was only going to be one outcome.

In a cycling masterpiece carved by Michelangelo, Van der Poel fought against fans’ loose caps, mud puddles and strong winds to take an unassailable lead in the Queen of the Classics. No scenario could separate the World Champion from glory as he headed into the iconic velodrome with a three-minute advantage. A modest victory salute later and he entered an elite club with a total of six Monument victories.

With even enough time to catch his breath and watch the sprint for second place, the 2024 Paris-Roubaix may go down as Van der Poel’s crowning moment in history as the greatest Classics rider of his generation. This is the pinnacle of his dynasty.

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To revel in his glory, check out our gallery of his Tour of Flanders 2024 triumph

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