During the 2012 road season, Van der Poel got his first general classification victory at the Ronde des Vallées; he also won the young rider classification at the same race. Van der Poel was a member of the Dutch World Championship squad, when he competed in the junior road race; he finished within the 56-rider main group, and as the best-placed Dutch rider, in ninth position. Picking up where he left off the previous winter, Van der Poel's 2012–13 cyclo-cross campaign was flawless; he contested thirty races, and won every single one of them. Having defended his European title in the United Kingdom, Van der Poel maintained his Dutch title in Hilvarenbeek on the same day that his brother David won the Under-23 Championships.
