Mathieu van der Poel is grateful to his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates after his stage win and taking the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. The Dutchman, who beat Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, among others, is also proud of himself.
“This came from my toes,” Van der Poel began after his stage victory to the camera of the NOS. “I didn’t really have a super day again. But thanks to my team, I was perfectly positioned everywhere. That allowed me to just survive every climb.”
“And yes, in the end I was so focused,” Van der Poel continued. “It had been a long time since I had won a stage in the Tour de France, so I really didn’t want to let this one pass me by.”
It was the second stage victory ever in the Tour de France for the thirty-year-old Van der Poel. In 2021, he was the best on the Mûr-de-Bretagne. That also earned him the yellow jersey then.
‘I can be very proud of this’
Now Van der Poel was the best in a sprint with strong riders like Pogacar and Vingegaard. “I had studied the final well,” he said. “Whoever came through the last corner first had a good chance of winning.”
“I had hoped it was a bit shorter after the corner, because my legs started to fill up and I saw a front wheel coming next to me. But luckily I was just good enough to hold on.”
The fact that Van der Poel kept strong riders like Pogacar and Vingegaard behind him makes him extra proud. “I am put forward as a favorite, but if you see who was all there… They are all climbers, so I can be very proud of this.”
On Saturday, Van der Poel already said after the stage win of his teammate Jasper Philipsen that his Tour could no longer be broken. And now? “Well, now even less so. If you win early in the Tour, you always have a good chance of yellow. It doesn’t get any better than this.”
