"What can you do with his type of rider in the Tour?" - Mathieu van der Poel's father Adrie notices lack of stages for true classics specialists
Cycling
Mathieu van der Poel went to the Tour de France with the ambition to win a stage himself and contribute to the success of his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen in the bunch finishes. While the latter goal goes relatively well with two stages to Philipsen's name, Van der Poel himself is still yet to even enter the top 10 in a stage and the third week won't present the Dutchman with many opportunities to turn the tides either.
How does the world champion deal with the situation? "It's tiring, but in a nice way. We have already won, so from my point of view the Tour can no longer be ruined for us," thinks Mathieu's father Adrie van der Poel. "I think it will only become clear in the coming week. That was the case last year too, when he was really growing. It was not an easy Tour, with changeable weather. Now it is first a matter of surviving for the coming tough stages," he said in Café Koers.
Van der Poel himself noted that it is difficult to force something, which his father agrees with. "What can you do with his type of rider in the Tour? Okay, he was still useful in the sprint for Jasper, but your own chance is minimal if you make a Tour that looks like this. You can also see that with other riders, who - anonymous is a big word - cannot do their thing."
Mathieu doesn't mind anymore, his father thinks. "I think he's accepted it. He knows the ambitions of the team going to the Tour. The green jersey was taken away a bit by that disqualification, after which it was a fight for that stage win. That's not easy either, because there are a lot of people struggling who don't have much business being there," is his view on the hectic sprint approach.
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- I don’t know where this website bought its clock but your post was timed at 24:16 ;-)Mistermaumau08-02-2025
- Drama timeRide197408-02-2025
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- So much for the locals being massacred then. I guess as long as we continue to have access to the artificially low priced exploited ressources there and can enrich ourselves on stock markets investing in arms manufacturers, worrying about sports events is about the most upsetting thing that can happen to us right?Mistermaumau07-02-2025
- Shame but kind of justified, might be the only way to get organisers and UCI to start doing more from their side, and no-one is asking the world.Mistermaumau07-02-2025
- What a disaster this has turned out to be, considering that basically half of the peloton have abandoned the race in protest. Things are not looking good for the race's organization.
santiagobenites07-02-2025 - Oi! Get it together UCI. Relocate now. Racing is dangerous enough without being Km's from an active war zone!yuckly07-02-2025
- Good job! It's been a long road since his accident.1stpastthepost07-02-2025
- Thanks, it wasn’t showing early on, sometimes the site has posting delays, it refreshes very badly and gets confused when people edit. GB really doesn’t want to promote cycling, you see it at every level, maybe drivers are lobbying against making cycling too popular, haha.Mistermaumau07-02-2025
- Everyone wants to grab a slice of pie, hapoened in boxing, happening in golf now, trying to happen in club football. Will we need to add undisputed champion in cycling too one day?Mistermaumau07-02-2025