Mathieu van der Poel narrowly missed out on another stage victory in the Tour de France on Wednesday. The Dutchman fell just short of catching stage winner Jonas Abrahamsen. Tadej Pogacar crashed hard but lost no time.
The eleventh stage to and from Toulouse was characteristic of this thrilling Tour de France. The stage was a spectacle from start to finish.
In the hilly finale, Van der Poel, along with others including Van Aert, attempted to catch a group of leaders. On the final climb, the Dutchman launched his own attack, but he was a handful of seconds short of joining leaders Mauro Schmid and Abrahamsen.
While Abrahamsen won the sprint-à-deux and the exhausted Van der Poel crossed the finish line in third, everything happened among the favorites. Visma riders Jonas Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson attacked, but Pogacar was able to follow. Moments later, the Slovenian crashed hard after touching the rear wheel of a colleague.
Pogacar scrambled to his feet, put his chain back on, and rejoined his rivals for the overall victory. They then ceased attacking each other, partly because Ben Healy urged everyone to remain calm. The Irishman retained the yellow jersey.
On Thursday, the Tour de France peloton heads into the Pyrenees. The finish is on the Hautacam. A mountain time trial to Peyragudes follows on Friday.
Déjà vu for Van der Poel
In the hilly stage around Toulouse, it took a long time before the breakaway riders were given space. After many attack attempts, Abrahamsen and Schmid managed to create a gap with Davide Ballerini, Mathieu Burgaudeau, and Fred Wright.
A group followed in pursuit a little later. Besides Van der Poel and Van Aert, Quinn Simmons, Arnaud De Lie, and Axel Laurance were also part of this group. This quintet lingered for a long time about half a minute behind.
On the final climb, Abrahamsen and Schmid proved to be the strongest riders at the front. Van der Poel, meanwhile, shook off his companions. A nerve-wracking finale followed, in which the thirty-year-old Dutchman steadily closed the gap. Yet, he ultimately fell seven seconds short.
It wasn’t the first time that Van der Poel narrowly missed out on a stage win in this Tour de France. He struck in the second stage but finished second behind Pogacar in the fourth stage. In the ninth stage, ‘MVDP’ rode ahead all day and was caught 750 meters from the finish.
In the Pyrenees, Van der Poel will likely keep his powder dry. The main question in these mountain stages is how much damage Pogacar sustained from his crash.