Van der Poel will lead the Netherlands Road Cycling Team at the Olympics

Netherlands announces the names of the cyclists who will represent this country in the cycling events of the Paris Olympic Games. In the case of the men's event, there are no surprises regarding the leadership, which falls on the current world champion Mathieu van der Poel, who seeks to continue his successful season after an unparalleled spring in which he won both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

Hoole and Van Baarle will accompany Van der Poel in Paris

With just over two months to go until the Paris Olympic Games, the members of the various teams that will compete in the road cycling events in the French capital are gradually being revealed.

The latest to announce their selection are the Dutch, who had three spots for this event. Obviously, the first spot had a name for a long time in the form of Mathieu van der Poel, who fits the streets of Paris like a glove and declared from the beginning of the season that this race was one of his top priorities in 2024, especially considering that defending his World title seems out of reach due to the extreme toughness of the Zurich course for his characteristics.

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There has been speculation about the possibility of Mathieu van der Poel doubling up in both the road race and the XCO event, an option that, according to the cyclist himself, he ruled out at the beginning of the year to focus solely on the road race.

His absence in the mountain bike event means that repeating the course that led him to become world champion last year in Glasgow is not a problem, so the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider also confirmed that he will be participating in the Tour de France, but with the same philosophy as last year. No chasing breakaways or stage wins. The goal is to train and be a luxury lead-out man for Jasper Philipsen as he did in the previous edition.

The selection of the other two available spots has been more complicated, especially because there were many good options among the Dutch cyclists. Finally, accompanying Van der Poel at the Olympic event in Paris will be Lidl-Trek rider Daan Hoole, who will also represent the Netherlands in the time trial; and Visma-Lease a Bike rider Dylan van Baarle, who, due to his level, could also have a good chance of performing well as a plan B.

The women's team was also announced, with leadership naturally falling on the current best cyclist: Demi Vollering. In the women's event, the Netherlands has 4 spots, the maximum possible for the Olympic race. These spots will be filled by Ellen van Dijk, Lorena Wiebes, and Marianne Vos, who already knows what it's like to enjoy Olympic glory as she won the gold medal at the London Olympics in 2012. Both Demi Vollering and Ellen van Dijk will also participate in the time trial event.