Mathieu van der Poel "can still try and get the yellow jersey this year" on opening Tour de France week

Mathieu van der Poel wore the yellow jersey on his debut Tour de France last year, after a set of strong performances on the opening hilly days. The route this year doesn't favour him the same way, however the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider will be on the hunt for the race lead.

“I have to see where I will be against the specialists in the TT - if I lose 10-15 seconds, which would be a really good performance, maybe I can try something in the days after. Maybe until the Roubaix stage it will be possible," van der Poel said regarding the possibility of netting the yellow jersey on the opening week of the Tour. "You never know. The time trial hurts anyway so you have to go all in and see what I can do.”

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Time-trial which will be crucial. With 13 kilometers in distance, and a significant technical aspect to it, van der Poel should be able to defend himself very well against the likes of Filippo Ganna and Wout van Aert. However he admits his level is inferior: “You have to have the best tech, the best aero position to even have a chance of winning. Power output alone is not enough anymore. It also makes it quite a cool aspect of the sport," he said.

“Of course I have the power to do it, and it means top-10s a lot of the time, but to really be amongst the best you have to get the marginal gains. It really means a whole year of working and having the ultimate aero position, and it’s not really the case in my set-up now, van der Poel added. Having finished fifth at last year's initial time-trial, and on the podium of both at this year's Giro, van der Poel does position himself as a contender for the podium.

“Along the way I have made a few steps to get better, and I showed that already in some of my results, but to really beat the specialists is not something I believe in," he describes. However he is very conservative on the expectations, likely taking into consideration the less hilly route which he will find in Copenhagen.

"But tomorrow if I can put myself in the top-10, maybe something will be possible the day after and I can still try and get the yellow jersey this year. But it will be more difficult than last year," he concluded.