"The intention was to go on the attack together with Jasper for that intermediate sprint" - Mathieu van der Poel explains how he appeared in stage 6 breakaway

Mathieu van der Poel was part of the early breakaway on Thursday during the second Pyrenees stage of the Tour de France. He jumped in with a plan to help Jasper Philipsen gather some points towards green classification, but that didn't quite work out as the Belgian didn't make the cut.

"It was actually the intention to go on the attack together with Jasper for that intermediate sprint, but I was alone. So that's how I got there," he laughed in an interview with NOS.

Van der Poel stayed with the leading group until the foot of Col du Tourmalet, but soon dropped out on the climb. "I wanted to ride over Aspin within the group somehow because I knew that I could just do my thing from the Tourmalet to the finish line."

"He rode really fast. Of course he also had a reason to survive the Tourmalet, he still had a leader behind him. I do not have that. I have to lead-out the sprinter tomorrow," Van der Poel said laughing again.