"It started with a small joke..." - Jonas Rickaert fulfils dream of reaching Tour de France podium thanks to Mathieu van der Poel's teammwork

Jonas Rickaert might not have been able to win the day on stage 9 at the 2025 Tour de France, but thanks to some heroic teamwork with Mathieu van der Poel, the long-time domestique got the chance to live out a childhood dream and stand on the podium of the sport's most iconic race at the end of the day.

Now 31 years old, Rickaert has spent the last five and half years selflessly working in service of Van der Poel and fellow superstar team leader Jasper Philipsen. After mentioning how he dreamed of having the chance to shine himself at a post-stage 8 dinner, Van der Poel then immediately set about putting the wheels in motion to get his domestique on the podium.

Attacking from kilometre zero on stage 9, it worked out perfectly as Rickaert and Van der Poel were left alone together in a two-man break. Incredibly strong riders, they almost pulled off the impossible too, with Van der Poel only caught inside the final kilometre. As mentioned though, the big goal of the day arguably wasn't the stage win, it was getting Rickaert onto the podium.

"My goal to be once on the Tour podium is achieved!" Rickaert beamed in his post-stage interview, having been awarded the prize of most combative rider for stage 9. "It was super hard today. It started with a small joke and it got more and more serious. We planned it. Yesterday I said I would like to be on the podium of the Tour and Mathieu said we go at the front the two of us."

"We thought the others would never let us go but they did," he continues. "I think they thought we would go until the intermediate sprint but the goal was to go to the finish. We tried and we almost succeeded. When the gap came down to 40 seconds, we thought it was over but somehow we got 1’20’’ again and then you have to start believing. We went for it."

Now, not only does Rickaert has a lifelong dream checked off for his bucket list, he also has a new picture to frame and put on his wall of memories at home to look back on when he retires. "I have a picture at home from a similar effort with Geraint Thomas in the Eneco Tour," concludes Rickaert warmly. "Now I’ll hang one with Mathieu next to it."