“Jonas Rickaert had always dreamed of standing on the Tour podium" - Mathieu van der Poel helps teammate live his Tour de France dream on stage 9

There were some eyebrows raised when Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert took on a two-man breakaway on stage 9 at the 2025 Tour de France. They almost pulled off a heroic stage win though, with Van der Poel only caught inside the final kilometre, before Tim Merlier sprinted to the win.

“It’s a different kind of effort, of course,” the Dutchman said of his long day out front in his post-stage interview afterwards. “I felt good, and in the end I came pretty close,” he added with a smile.

“Our goal was to go flat-out from the start to open up a gap. We knew the wind would cause a battle behind us as teams fought for position. We hoped things would settle down once the GC teams took over at the front of the peloton,” Van der Poel continued. “But I don’t think any of us expected to get this close. I knew the peloton would come fast. I just came up a bit short — but that happens often with breakaways caught in sight of the finish.”

Whilst Van der Poel was caught inside the final kilometre, leaving the Dutchman without reward for his efforts, Rickaert was granted the combativity prize for the day, securing the long-time domestique a chance to shine on the Tour de France podium for himself. “That was the goal,” beamed Van der Poel proudly. “Jonas had always dreamed of standing on the Tour podium, and this was one of his chances. I volunteered to go along with him.”