Mathieu van der Poel will start a stage in the Tour de France in yellow for the ninth time on Wednesday. This puts him in the Dutch top three. Only Wout Wagtmans and Joop Zoetemelk have ridden more Tour stages in yellow.
The now 78-year-old Zoetemelk is the record holder with a total of 22 stages in yellow, spread over five Tours (1971, 1973, 1978, 1979 and 1980). Wagtmans, who died in 1994 at the age of 64, follows with twelve times yellow in total (1954, 1955 and 1956).
Van der Poel wore yellow six times in the 2021 Tour and will start a stage as leader of the standings for the third time on Wednesday. He is now ahead of Gerrie Knetemann. Knetemann, who died in 2004, wore yellow a total of eight times, in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981.
In total, nineteen Dutch riders have worn yellow in the Tour. It is striking that Jan Janssen only has two yellow jerseys, while he is one of the two Dutch riders with an overall victory in the Tour. The now 85-year-old Janssen triumphed in 1968, Zoetemelk (1980) is the other Tour winner.
The first Dutch wearer of the yellow jersey ever was Wim van Est in 1951. Van Est, who died in 2003, also briefly led in the Tours of 1955 and 1958.
There is a good chance that Van der Poel will wear yellow for the last time in this Tour on Wednesday. The thirty-year-old rider from Alpecin-Deceuninck is tied on seconds with Tadej Pogacar, with a time trial on the program. Three-time Tour winner Pogacar is the better time trialist of the two.
Two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard, who is only eight seconds behind Van der Poel and Pogacar, also hopes to grab the yellow.
The first time trial of this Tour is 33 kilometers long, starting and finishing in Caen. The Kazakh Yevgeniy Fedorov of XDS Astana will be the first to start at 13:10. Van der Poel will be the last rider to start at 17:00.