Second yellow card, but no immediate punishment awaits Danny van Poppel after another sprint deviation
Cycling
Among all riders in the peloton, Danny van Poppel is currently the one closest to get a taste of the new yellow cards system. From the start of 2025, riders may be sanctioned after racking up certain amount yellow cards over a longer period of time.
Van Poppel was awarded his first yellow cards of the season in the second stage of Tour Down Under a month ago. The Dutch leadout man was also relegated in the stage results for his move with which he most notably hindered Tobias Lund Andresen after finishing his work of setting up Sam Welsford. A small price to pay for a stage win?
On Saturday, Van Poppel was once again sanctioned for almost crashing out Tudor Pro Cycling's sprinter Arvid de Kleijn in the final. Van Poppel's compatriot narrowly managed to keep control of his bike at a cost of a significant loss of momentum. Interestingly, the Dutchman made another contact with Jasper Philipsen later in the sprint run-up, but the Belgian wasn't punished for closing De Kleijn.
Two yellow cards, yet no red card
Back to Van Poppel, after two yellow cards within a short period, you would expect a punishment. But the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe rider is in no imminent danger of a suspension for the time being. According to the rules, there is no special punishment for scoring two yellow cards within 30 days.
Small reminder of the new rule (you can read more on the topic in our previous articles):
- Two yellow cards in the same event = DQ + 7-day suspension
- Three yellow cards in the span of 30 days = 14-day suspension
- Six yellow cards in the span of 365 days = 30-day suspension
Van Poppel still shouldn't take the yellow cards lightly because as a key leadout rider, he'll often get caught in fierce battles for his sprinter and the threat of one-month ban is not very plausible, to say the least. Therefore he should try to keep himself away from being involved in any more incidents as the six-yellow-card suspension is not so distant anymore.
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- agreed. flanders is a beast. i like tadej, but i’m full on rooting for mathieu next sunday.OCexile29-03-2025
- Indeed, strong as ever on the flat, maybe stronger on climbs. There are very few records within reach for contemporary riders (Cabendish had to extend his career to get his and took twice as long as Merckx to equality), this would be one that would be very hard to take away.Mistermaumau29-03-2025
- I thought newspeak was condensing any statement into the smallest number of pertinent words.Mistermaumau29-03-2025
- flanders is mvdp’s favorite race and he’s one win away from being the lone record holder with 4 wins. i’d be very surprised if the gap that pogačar opened in him there 2 years ago wasn’t THE major focus of all his training. and when mathieu has a goal, he turns himself inside out to achieve it. we’ll see next week if he got there, but i’d agree with van avermat’s assessment of van der poel’s fitness.OCexile29-03-2025
- It’s almost like newspeak. It’s classics season, Pogacar’s main rival has always been van der Poel. Then grand tour season will begin, and we will pivot mid sentence and Pogacar’s main rival will have always been Vingegaard. What a season this promises to be. Let’s hope they stay healthy (and Vingegaard gets past the concussion).RidesHills29-03-2025
- Great that he’s decided to do Flanders though his weight remark is irrelevant, Mads is proportionately heavier and MVDP has the same weight but is around 10cm shorter.Mistermaumau29-03-2025
- Yeah, looks slow up there.Jumpyjohn28-03-2025
- lol His aim was well off! MVP was well past him before the guy decided to spit.Cyclingsbestfan28-03-2025
- But you know that’s what makes this website live ;-)Mistermaumau28-03-2025
- I hope he stays upright too and I hope that in this years Paris Roubaix we get a proper good old fashioned man against man race. Can't wait!Cyclingsbestfan28-03-2025