Countdown to the Tour de France: 7 days | Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel’s greatest Tour moments

With one week remaining until the Tour de France, we continue our countdown by looking at two of cycling's most beloved stars: Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel.

The arch rivals, whose stories began on the cyclocross field, have experienced very different journeys at the Tour. One has amassed a haul of stage wins and worn multiple jerseys, playing a pivotal role in two Tour victories for his team. The other made a sensational Tour debut with a stage win and yellow jersey, but has since largely served as a selfless teammate.

We revisit their greatest Tour de France moments so far and preview how they might shine in the 2025 edition.

Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel have been compared for years, yet in the Tour de France, their careers could not be more different. Van Aert has rapidly become a Tour de France superstar: a nine-time stage winner, a wearer of the yellow jersey, a green jersey champion, and a key lieutenant in Jonas Vingegaard’s back-to-back Tour victories in 2022 and 2023. His Tour palmarès is already the stuff of legend, built on versatility and team spirit.

Mathieu van der Poel, by contrast, has had flashes of brilliance at the Tour but on a far more limited scale. In his very first Tour appearance, he achieved what his famous grandfather Raymond Poulidor never did, wearing the maillot jaune, and did so in unforgettable fashion.

Beyond that glorious debut, however, van der Poel’s Tour de France impact has been modest: just one stage win and a handful of days in yellow, followed by challenging second and third outings. Rather than racking up personal accolades, the Dutchman has recently dedicated himself to helping Jasper Philipsen succeed in the Tour’s sprint battles.

In fact, Van Aert and Van der Poel’s Tour de France differences reverse their experiences in the monuments, where Van der Poel has dominated and Van Aert has just the one win. But why is that?

From the moment Wout van Aert first lined up at the Tour de France in 2019, he demonstrated that he was ordinary rider. Riding for Jumbo-Visma, van Aert immediately made his mark by contributing to a team time trial victory in Stage 2 of the 2019 Tour, a sign of things to come.

A week later, the Belgian took his first individual Tour victory on stage 10, and he held the white jersey from stages 2 to 5. That maiden Tour, however, ended in heartbreak when a crash in the time trial forced him to abandon. It was a brutal exit, yet van Aert had shown enough in one week to signal that he would be a force at the Tour.

In 2020, van Aert returned stronger and eager to support his team’s yellow jersey ambitions while also seizing his chances. He duly won two stages in the opening week of the Tour, but then we began to see the Belgian’s ability in the mountains.

Even as he helped teammate Primoz Roglic in the mountains, van Aert still found opportunities to shine for himself. By Tour’s end, he had established a reputation as the peloton’s ultimate utility man: capable of towing the bunch up a mountain one day and winning a bunch sprint the next.

The 2021 Tour de France cemented Wout van Aert’s status as a Tour superstar. He achieved a remarkable hat-trick of stage victories that showcased his all-around brilliance. First came an astonishing win on Mont Ventoux, Stage 11 saw van Aert attack and conquer the double ascent of the Giant of Provence, soloing to victory in Malaucène.

As if winning a mountain stage weren’t enough, van Aert then triumphed in the Stage 20 individual time trial, proving the fastest against the clock. A day later, on Stage 21 in Paris, he sprinted to win on the Champs-Élysées, denying Mark Cavendish a record-breaking victory.

If 2021 was impressive, 2022 was the year van Aert truly conquered the Tour’s points classification and became a household name far beyond cycling fans. He grabbed the yellow jersey early, taking the overall lead in the first week through a string of second place finishes.

Wearing the iconic jersey, he launched a now-famous attack on Stage 4 to Calais, timing a late move on a short climb and riding solo to the finish line, arms outstretched in his maillot jaune. Van Aert swapped yellow for green later in the race as Tadej Pogacar assumed the GC lead, but the Belgian continued to collect accolades.

He won Stage 8 with an explosive uphill sprint (in the green jersey this time), showing he could beat punchy climbers on a hilltop finish. All the while, van Aert kept amassing intermediate sprint points and assisting his leader Jonas Vingegaard in the mountains. By the Tour’s final week, he had an unassailable lead in the points classification, ultimately taking home the green jersey with a record points tally.

Perhaps even more significant was van Aert’s selfless contribution to his teammate’s triumph. On Stage 18 to Hautacam, van Aert infiltrated the breakaway and then waited to help Vingegaard in the final climb, pacing so hard that even the mighty Pogacar was dropped. This act of sacrifice and strength effectively sealed Vingegaard’s first Tour de France title.

By the end of 2022, Wout van Aert had compiled nine Tour stage wins across four participations, along with stints in yellow, a green jersey, and countless accolades for his versatility. His 2023 Tour de France was the first in which he failed to win a stage, but he was once again crucial in Vingegaard’s title win.

It’s crazy to think that, after a winless Tour in 2024 too, it is now 3 years since Van Aert won a Tour stage. Surely it can’t go on like this?

Mathieu van der Poel’s relationship with the Tour de France has been defined by one shining early triumph and a subsequent shift to a supporting role.

His Tour debut in 2021 could not have been more dramatic. Van der Poel arrived as one of the most highly anticipated debutants in years, and he immediately lived up to the billing. On Stage 2, finishing atop the Mûr-de-Bretagne, the Alpecin rider delivered a masterclass.

He attacked not once but twice on the steep Mûr: first to grab bonus seconds at the halfway point (a nod to his late grandfather Poulidor, who famously never wore yellow), and then again at the finish to seize the stage victory. In doing so, Mathieu van der Poel not only took his first Tour stage win, but also claimed the yellow jersey in just his second day ever at the Tour de France.

It was a profoundly emotional moment. As van der Poel pulled on the yellow jersey, he was in tears, dedicating the achievement to his grandfather. Raymond Poulidor, a French cycling legend, had stood on the Tour podium multiple times in the 1960s and 70s but never got to wear yellow. His grandson fulfilled that family dream at the first opportunity.

Van der Poel’s win and subsequent time in yellow lit up the first week of the 2021 Tour. He defended the race lead valiantly for six days, holding onto the maillot jaune through the first leg of the race, including a ferocious punchy finish in Stage 6 where he narrowly kept the jersey from the likes of Pogacar.

Ultimately, van der Poel relinquished the jersey in the Alps (Stage 8) to Tadej Pogacar, and soon after withdrew from the race. His exit prior to the finish in Paris was planned; he switched focus to the Tokyo Olympic mountain bike event that year. Some fans were disappointed not to see him complete the Tour, but in one week Mathieu had left an indelible mark.

However, van der Poel’s subsequent Tour attempts did not yield the same glory. In 2022, he entered the Tour weeks after racing at the Giro, where he picked up a stage and wore the Maglia rosa. But, he struggled through the opening stages and never contended for a win. After several anonymous days, van der Poel abandoned the 2022 Tour in the second week.

Come 2023, Mathieu van der Poel returned to the Tour with a new perspective and role. Hisprimary mission was not personal glory but to support his friend and teammate Jasper Philipsen in the sprint stages. Philipsen was emerging as the fastest finisher in the world, and van der Poel put himself at the service of the team’s green jersey ambitions.

Embracing the job of lead-out man, van der Poel proved immensely effective. Throughout the flat stages, he could be seen in the final kilometers stringing out the peloton, guiding Philipsen into perfect position. The results spoke volumes: Philipsen won countless stages of the 2023 Tour, the most of any rider that year, and dominated the points classification, and each of those victories had van der Poel’s fingerprints on it.

Van der Poel then played a similar role in 2024, as Philipsen won three stages. Yet, cycling fans are often bound by the feeling that Van der Poel should not be a lead out man, and are yearning to see the version of the Dutchman that we see in the spring, in the Tour.

Will 2025 be the year he adds to his stage wins?

As the 2025 Tour de France looms, both Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel will be looking to script new highlights in their contrasting Tour stories. Let’s take a look at some of the stages where the duo could battle it out.

The first week features a 209 km stage ending in Boulogne-sur-Mer with short, sharp climbs in the finale, including gradients over 10%. This has “puncheur” written all over it. Van Aert famously won a similar northern France stage to Calais in 2022 with a late uphill attack. If the Stage 1 opener (around Lille) is won by a pure sprinter, Stage 2 could even put a rider like Wout or Mathieu into the yellow jersey. We might even witness a direct duel between them on the final ramp…

This 201 km stage in Normandy is full of rolling terrain (six categorized climbs) and ends with a steep into Vire. Such a finale screams late breakaway or reduced group sprint, scenarios where both Wout and Mathieu thrive. Van der Poel, if free from team duties, might target this as a stage to animate, given the classics-like profile and a punchy uphill finish similar to climbs he’s conquered in one-day races. Van Aert could likewise seize this stage, whether by controlling a break and attacking late or winning a small sprint.

The Tour returns to the Mûr-de-Bretagne climb for a stage finish, and that will undoubtedly stir memories for van der Poel, as it’s the very site of his 2021 triumph. In 2025, two ascents of the Mûr are scheduled, making it a decisive day for GC punch and stage glory.

Van der Poel will surely be motivated to repeat his heroics on this Breton wall. Yet, it won’t come easy: the GC contenders like Pogacar and Vingegaard might battle for seconds here, and we all know that the Slovenian loves battling it out with Van der Poel.

Traditionally a sprinters’ showcase on the Champs-Élysées, the final stage of the 2025 Tour de France will be anything but typical. For the first time in history, the stage will include the Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre before descending to the Champs-Élysées circuit.

This means: cobbles. Remember, Van der Poel and Van Aert duelled on this circuit at the 2024 Olympic Games, before Remco Evenepoel stormed to victory. So, stage 21 is by no means guaranteed to be a sprint, and it could offer a final showdown between the two rivals.

Let us know in the comments who you believe will have a more successful Tour de France this year!