Mathieu van der Poel thought he was leading in the eleventh stage of the Tour de France after his attack on the last climb. The Dutchman later found out that there were still two riders ahead of him.
“I only heard late that there were still two men in the lead. It was quite confusing. That’s a shame,” Van der Poel told the NOS afterwards. “When I rode away from the others, I thought I was in the lead.”
In the hilly final, Van der Poel, along with Van Aert and others, tried to catch up with a group of leaders. On the last climb, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider chose to attack himself, but he didn’t know that Mauro Schmid and Jonas Abrahamsen were still ahead of him.
According to Van der Poel, this had to do with the faltering radio communication. “I thought the group I was catching up with was also the leading group. Radio communication has been difficult for a long time because of all the transmitters. They falter from time to time.”
When Van der Poel realized that there were still two riders ahead of him, he went hunting for the duo. In the end, he was seven seconds short of a new success in the Tour, and the stage victory went to Abrahamsen.
“I knew it would be difficult,” a slightly cold Van der Poel said about his day. “I had to pace myself and I certainly wasn’t at my best at the beginning. I had a heavy head, but it got better as the stage progressed.”