Thijs Zonneveld analyzes Mathieu van der Poel's attacks on Montmartre: "He scared the living daylights out of an entire peloton by how hard he rode there"

The limited team sizes of the Olympic race eventually didn't play into Mathieu van der Poel's hands, as despite the best efforts from teammates Daan Hoole and Dylan van Baarle quickly ended up isolated and eventually had to let go multiple smaller groups and most importantly the flying Remco Evenepoel.

A little later, Matteo Jorgenson, Toms Skujins and Julian Alaphilippe came back. And more importantly: they had immediately created a big gap. "It was one of the two key points in the final," said analyst Thijs Zonneveld in the podcast Hallo Parijs.

"Van der Poel had two choices there: do I wait because Belgium and Denmark also missed the move? Or do I go? He goes. What he did on Montmartre, I heard from three different riders, made no sense. How hard he rode there. He scared the living daylights out of an entire peloton. There was one who could have kept up with him: Wout van Aert."

Van der Poel wanted to cross over to the large group that had previously separated from the peloton. "He himself said that he thought it was over, but on the next climb Skjelmose and Pedersen crossed from behind. And at that moment he lost the race. He took initiative, which he often does, but that also makes you vulnerable."

"If your team is not strong enough to counter the next attack, then you are immediately screwed. It was also over immediately when Evenepoel went. I don't know what he should have done afterwards. The second time Montmartre the calf had already drowned."