On Sunday, the cyclo-cross riders will be in Lignières for the penultimate round of the World Cup. Mathieu van der Poel will probably be encouraged by his French grandfather’: Raymond Poulidor.

Raymond Poulidor is remembered for his three second places in the Tour de France, but of course he also won Milan-Sanremo and the Vuelta. Via his daughter "Poupou", he passed those genes to grandson Mathieu.

"Of course I'm proud of that," Poulidor told Sporza a few months. "He also has an older brother, David. David has been Dutch champion and was almost World Champion as a young rider.

"David was on track to build a great career but then we saw the development of Mathieu. Mathieu started to ride when he was five or six years old.

"When Mathieu was five, he won everything. When he was six, he won everything. At twenty years of age, he still wins everything. That's exceptional. I think he wins so much that I asked him: ‘How many races have you won since you were five years old?’

"Mathieu answered about 500. He has three world titles in cyclocross and also one on the road because he's a complete rider. He is fast in a sprint, he climbs well and is good in time trials.”

It is likely that Van der Poel will make the transition from the field to the road, but what are his ambitions there? "He has already achieved much on the road.

"He has won the world championships as a junior and a few other big races where elite riders were present. In the Tour of Belgium, Mathieu was third or fourth behind Gilbert. That’s promising.

"But he has so much fun in cyclo-cross that he wants to be a cyclo-cross rider for another two or three years. Then Mathieu will obviously have to make the transition to the road.

"Whether he can win a grand tour? I do not know. Mathieu already climbs better than Merckx did at that age. That is promising, but we should not dream too much. I hope that I will be old enough to continue to follow the career of Mathieu and David.”