Mathieu van der Poel would have preferred to win the exciting game of seconds with Arnaud de Lie in the Renewi Tour. But the Dutchman was Mainly very happy with his form after his narrow defeat in the Final Stage. “I am pleasantly surprised.”
Van der Poel Thinks Back For A Moment On Sunday Afternoon on the Bondgenotenlaan in Leuven to All the Intermediate Sprints That He Deliberate Let Go In Recent Days. “In Hindsight, you say: I should have tasks a second a few times there,” he says. “Oh well, it makes no sense to worry about that now. I am mainly very satisfied with how I red this tour.”
The Thirty-Year-Old Van Der Poel Made His Return To The Peloton in the Five-Day Renewi Tour. A months he had to drop out of the tour de france with pneumonia. That infection made him QUITE Ill, so he couldn’t cycle for a week. The Former World Champion had no idea how good he would be this week.
With a stage win last Friday on the wall of Geraardsbergen and a second place in the general classification, Van der Poel was better than he had expected. “I am pleasantly surprised by the Level I have achieved here. Again today. Because my preparation was not good.”
That positive feeling overshadows the disappointment over the narrow defeat for van der poel. After a thrilling denouement on the 2021 World Championship Course, he is only three seconds short or the lie. “Or Course I would have preferred to win,” says “mvdp”. “But Arnaud was clearly the fastest in the sprint. So he is the deserved winner.”
Intermediate Sprints Decisive for Final Victory
After Almost Twenty Hours of Racing, The Battle for the Overall Victory in the Renewi Tour Revolved around the Bonus Seconds. Van der Poel started the fifth and final stage with a deficit of one second on the lie in the standings.
In The WorldTour Race Through The Netherlands and Belgium, there is a so-called green kilometer in Each Stage. It contains three intermediate sprints, each with bonus seconds: three for number one, two for number two and one second for number three.
Van der Poel won the First Intermediate Sprint on Sunday, While de Lie Finished Third Once. As a result, the leader of Alpecin-DECEUNINCK VIRTUNULY TOK THE LEAD in the Standings. “I get all out for the first sprint. I succeeded, but after that I was really at my limit.”
The Lie Now had a deficit of one second on van der poel and knew that he had to put every thing on the final sprint. There were also bonus seconds at the finish line: Ten for the winner, Six for Number Two and Four for Number Three.
“After the green kilometer I only thought: I have to finish ahead of mathieu in the sprint,” Says de Lie. “I play a bit of poker. Sometimes you win with poker. Today was Such A Day.”
De Lie Wins After Clever Acceleration
Van der Poel was excellently positioned in the sprint of a reduced peloton by Teammate Tibor del Grosso. The Leader Could Sprint Freely, But On The Other Side of the Road de Lie Came Like A Devil Out Of A Box.
“I Focused on the Wheel of Pavel Bittner and Timed It Perfectly,” Says the 23-Year-Old De Lie, Nicknamed ‘The Bull of Lescheret’. “You have to be a bit lucky. Today the Bull Went Straight ahead and it was a perfect day.”
For van der Poel it was an almost perfect day. “This was Exactly What I Needed Towards The Mountain Bike World Championships (on September 14 in Switzerland, ed.)”, He says. “Only Arnaud won, Exactly the Only Rider who, Shouldn’t Have won.”