José de Cauwer: "Today I saw a Mathieu van der Poel again that I missed a bit in the first week"

Stage 10 of the Tour de France was the calmest and most controlled day of the Tour de France. Also without any sort of climbing, the pure sprinters were able to fight on for the stage win and we've seen Jasper Philipsen taking it, supported by Mathieu van der Poel. The World Champion received quite some complements after having once again displayed his best lead out skills.

"Today I saw a Mathieu van der Poel again that I missed a bit in the first week," José de Cauwer said for Sporza. "The aggression that was there today. Robbe Ghys said it too: it's as if we are better than the first 4 days. It seems a bit like that. Not only because of that stage win. In any case, it was a textbook lead-out." Alpecin-Deceuninck thrived from this and took an important triumph on the day, their first win in a race that had until then gone quite the wrong way.

We've seen the sprinters in action and it was a day where the points classification battle deepened and the two big favourites fought for the victory. When it came to the overall classification we've also seen the main teams near the front constantly and avoiding the possible splits that could happen due to the threatening wind. At the end of the day, a stage without crashes and with a regular bunch finish.

Wout van Aert also rode to fourth on the day, but asked if this was a sign of improving form, de Cauwer responds: "No, because today was really the easiest stage. I think it's important that he dares to sprint. Not that big risks had to be taken, but he does participate." He argues that this could however help him find better form in the second half of the race: "Those "concrete legs" will apparently be a bit behind then."