No Tour de France on the cards for Dutch TT champion Daan Hoole: "I’m hoping for the Vuelta, but nothing’s been confirmed"

Daan Hoole proved himself once again the best Dutch time trialist on Tuesday evening, taking the National Championships win against the clock for the second year running. Despite this however, the 26-year-old looks set to miss both the upcoming Tour de France and the 2025 World Championships.

“This one was quite tough because I started my season early and already had a lot of race days in the legs," Hoole reflected in conversation with Wielerflits, after edging Dylan van Baarle by 20 seconds to take a second successive national time trial title. "Then you’ve got the spring campaign on top of the Giro – that’s mentally quite draining as well. But the national championships were a big goal for me, and that really kept me going. It gave me the motivation to keep training, even when you’re physically and mentally worn out.”

Hoole won a stage of the Giro d'Italia earlier this year, denying Joshua Tarling in the stage 10 time trial to the surprise of many. Despite that sign of his strength however, Hoole was by no means certain of victory in the Netherlands. "After the Giro, I was properly ill for five days. I was already feeling under the weather during the final stages, and that celebration in Rome certainly didn’t help," he explains. "I made sure to get plenty of rest afterwards, and then got back into training – but not too much, as the Giro was still in my legs."

"I raced in Copenhagen on Sunday, which helped get the engine going again. Now it’s time for a proper break. First I’ll do the road race at nationals, and then I’m looking forward to a week’s holiday,” he continues, explaining how this means no Tour de France in 2025. “The team (Lidl-Trek) has just finalised the Tour de France squad, so now the focus shifts to the second half of the season. I’m hoping for the Vuelta, but nothing’s been confirmed yet, as we’ve got several riders in contention for that.”

Even the World Championships look unlikely this year. “Koos Moerenhout (Dutch national coach) and I agreed that I won’t be riding Worlds," he concludes. "The road race doesn’t suit me at all, and even the time trial is a really tough course. It’s just not worth making the long trip out there.”