THE END OF ME: Mathieu van der Poel announce his wife Roxanne Bertels committed suicide yesterday evening in a heartbreaking statement…

Reigning road world champion Mathieu van der Poel is heading to Zürich to defend his title on September 29, but the Dutchman won’t be racing the Vuelta a España as preparation.

Van der Poel won last year’s world title in Glasgow in August hot off the Tour de France but he won’t have a recent Grand Tour in his legs as he heads to Switzerland in late Septmeber.

In preparation for the 2021 and 2022 Worlds, he took on a series of smaller one-day races in Belgium, such as the Gooikse Pijl and GP de Wallonie, and it seems likely that he’ll follow a similar path this time around once he returns to racing following the Paris Olympic Games.

His Alpecin-Deceuninck team, meanwhile, will take on the Vuelta a España with 2023 points classification winner Kaden Groves leading the eight-man selection.