Mathieu Van Der Pol said he is looking forward to making his debut in next year's Tour de France. The Dutchman and his Alpecin Phoenix team will be looking for stage wins when the route for the 2021 event is announced in Paris on Sunday evening. ["If you look at the number of teams that come back empty-handed after three weeks of racing, if we can get one win, the Tour will be a great success for us," Van der Pol told L'Equipe on Monday.

"The first two stages are very suitable for punchers," the 25-year-old Dutchman said. 'But winning won't be easy. Most of the riders in the group are looking for a chance.

The opening stage has a steep finish, and the Mule de Bretagne climb awaits twice at the end of the second stage. His grandfather, Raymond Poulidor (who died last year), finished second overall three times and third five times in the Tour, but never wore the yellow jersey in his career.

Van der Pol and his Alpecin Phoenix team may have already convinced themselves of a wild card into next year's Tour, but the ProTeam team that almost certainly wins the UCI European Tour ranking, next season's World Tour races, including the Grand Tour to be automatically invited to next year's WorldTour races, including the Grand Tours.

In addition to the Tour, Van der Pol will also compete in the mountain bike cross-country race at the Tokyo Olympics in late July, but has not yet decided on the entire summer 2021 program.

"It's too early to talk about it," he said. The coronavirus outbreak has affected this season. 'A lot of factors come into play. Unless something changes, I'm sure I'll be competing in the Tour de France next year, and after that I'll be competing in the Olympics on a mountain bike. But we will have to decide later how best to prepare."

Van der Pol won the 2020 Des Rondes last month, following in the footsteps of his father Adri's 1986 Tour de Flanders victory, ahead of Belgian rival Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), who was competing in his second Tour de France this year.

Van der Pol was part of the lead group three days later in the Driedergse Brugge-De Panne, but with 16 km to go, he hit a ditch and suffered a mild concussion, ending his season with an untimely retirement.