“That stage is harder than everyone thinks”: Van der Poel still targeting yellow despite Alpecin time loss on opening team time trial

Mathieu van der Poel remains optimistic about his chances of taking the yellow jersey after Alpecin-Premier Tech delivered a respectable, but ultimately insufficient, performance in the opening team time trial of the 2026 Tour de France. Although the Belgian squad had invested heavily in preparing for the discipline, it lost too much time after several riders were dropped earlier than expected, leaving Van der Poel with a significant deficit to make up in Sunday's stage around Barcelona if he wants to grab the yellow jersey.

Van der Poel felt Alpecin-Premier Tech extracted the maximum from its performance, even if the result fell short of its ambitions. “My feeling? Pretty good. This isn't our speciality, but we worked well on it and our performance was okay,” he said in a post-race interview.

He explained that the team lost key riders too early in the effort, affecting its overall pace. “We lost two or three guys just a little too early to set the fastest time possible for us. We lost them in the sections where we probably needed them the most.”

Despite the setback, the Dutchman insisted victory had never been a realistic objective. “Something like that can happen in a team time trial and personally I never thought about winning. That wasn't realistic. If we could limit the damage to half a minute or at most a minute, then you're still in a position to try something.”

Van der Poel believes the second stage offers a better opportunity than many expect, despite starting with a time deficit.

“That stage is harder than everyone thinks. No, I haven't reconnoitred it, but you can simply see that it's difficult, also because of the weather and the high pace in the Tour.”

Looking back on the opening day, he remained satisfied with both his form and his team's execution. “Today I was happy with my feeling. We rode a good time trial. We got the maximum out of it.”