Mathieu van der Poel heads back to Spain for his final preparation for Tour de France 2025
CyclingFriday, 20 June 2025 at 23:00
The Tour de France 2025 is practically just around the corner. The main stars who will star in the Grande Boucle have already begun their final preparations for the three-week long race. Among them of course one of the main adepts to wear yellow in first week - Mathieu van der Poel.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck superstar managed to ride a great Criterium du Dauphiné, not showing any signs of consequences of his recent wrist injury. As a result, the anticipation of seeing the Dutchman in a very ambitious version within the Tour is growing.
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To begin his final training for the Tour de France, Van der Poel has returned to his comfort zone. In Calpe, Alicante, the reigning Paris-Roubaix and Milano-Sanremo winner met up with training partner Freddy Ovett.
Mathieu van der Poel had a great Criterium du Dauphiné
Van der Poel's first training session for the Tour de France was 113 kilometers. It was not complicated at all for the Dutchman. It was just a ride to slowly start to get back to his legs after all the accumulated fatigue from the Dauphiné.
The pace, moreover, was quite relaxed, at 32 km/h. Little by little, he will be stepping up his pace, surely with the goal of wearing the yellow jersey during the first week of the Tour de France.
Philipsen's faithful squire
But, of course, Mathieu van der Poel's main goal, besides taking some wins of his own, will be the same as in recent years. Jasper Philipsen dominated the Tour de France in 2023, where he took the points classification, with the Dutchman as the main helper in the sprints.
In 2024, Philipsen's pride was wounded, when Biniam Girmay snatched the throne from him. Regaining it is on the priority list for Alpecin and the Belgian, and everyone will need the best version of Van der Poel to do so.
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- Victor - you are so far off base with your comments it's ridiculous! Why should Tadeg have to attack anymore? He doesn't ! He's playing the long game of taking yellow to Paris and not just trying to win every fricking stage!frieders325-07-2025
- Visma is riding in hope that they can remix their 2022 tactics and bait Pogacar into beating himself... But the good thing about Pogacar losing the way he did is that he learned his limits and is both stronger and smarter... Vingegaard's career becomes more interesting. This man tends to shut his season down after the TdF... Perhaps he will need to start preparing for the GTs that Pogacar does not target and racing beyond the summer because he is on a really big salary for his current level of performance and he has too many bad days to ever beat a healthy Pogacar over 3 weeks ... Funny how Visma paced all day two days running and lost time at the line on both days..DoctorNurse7125-07-2025
- No one mentioned the man of the day: Adam Yates. He hasn't done much this Tour, can't blame him for coming in under top form after doing the Giro. But his long, long pull after a grueling day kept everyone, even Vingo, from attacking until very late, which set up Pogi for a counter attack. Vingo knows he needs a lot more than the few seconds he can gain in the last two k's, but Yates absolutely shut him down. Kudos Adam!velodan25-07-2025
- pogačar’s ability to raise his level mid career really is just staggering. he’s gotten SO much stronger since the last time he and vingegaard faced each other both healthy. it’s kinda sad, but jonas’ career is really just OVER now. i’m actually anticipating something similar happening to mvdp next year. i’ve mentioned once before this so sorry for repetition, but i really expect pog to up his level again to make sure that he never loses roubaix or msr again either, just like he did when he got sick of losing to mathieu at flanders. i don’t think mvdp can improve enough to ever win there again against pogačar, but pogi can clearly find more and more watts when he wants or needs them. he also never fatigues at all, which is a great advantage he has over mathieu, who definitely feels it when he completely empties his tank one weekend during the classics season, then pays for it the following week. i think the only question mark left is whether or not pogačar can get to a point where he’s dominating bunch sprints, too. i realize that sounds insane and impossible, and i am half joking. half. this is a level of dominance that i think will ultimately exceed almost any other athlete in any sport. others come to mind, like alexander karelin, the olympic wrestler. but pog is like karelin as a middleweight who moves up and down in divisions and just dominates everywhere. or like a michael jordan who can ALSO completely dominate in the paint as a center. just staggering. the only questions left in cycling have to do with how much better pogačar will decide to get.OCexile25-07-2025
- What about a fine for visma for break checking with no one in front ,knowing pogacar was behind them ?captmike25-07-2025
- The fines are a money grab for the pockets of the tour organizerscaptmike25-07-2025
- Jonas is maxed out, you can have a solid team but if you can't drop the main protagonist then you lose. I give him credit for believing in himself and doing his best, and let's be honest, he's better than every other stage racer except for Tadej. If you don't race much in the lead up to July it's hard to do anything special in the Tour, no matter how good you are.awp24-07-2025
- If that's what it is. Seems more like a pathetic attempt at mind games.Renz24-07-2025
- Of course Jonas's chances of winning are mostly over, barring a Pogi crash. But of course Jonas isn't going to say that until Pogi victory is truly inevitable. Just like Pogi in 2022 - not admitting defeat. Shouldn't we admire rather than mock the fighting spirit?mobk24-07-2025
- 4 minutes, some weird visma tactics and a very strong Pogacar … well yea it is over.ChrisBe24-07-2025
Mathieu to win Stages 2, 4, 6, 7, 15 and 20