Mathieu van der Poel’s Tour start this year is in stark contract with his performance in last year’s Tour de France. Then the all-rounder from Hoogerheide already had a stage win after the first week and the yellow around his shoulders for six days. It won’t work this year yet. “I didn’t have the legs,” it sounded disappointed from his mouth on Wednesday after the fifth stage.
The Van der Poel fireworks on his beloved cobblestones that cycling enthusiasts had hoped for did not materialize. From Van der Poel’s point of view, it was no more than a pilot light in the mini version of Paris-Roubaix. Van der Poel said he hopes it will get better in the coming days. “Otherwise it will be a long Tour for me.”
He seems to realize more and more that things have been going wrong for some time now. Against the cycling site cycling flash said Van der Poel that he is currently ‘not a shadow of himself’ and that he ‘cannot be burned forward’.
“I was often the first rider to get off.”
Van der Poel said on Wednesday that he had not felt top fit in the Giro d’Italia. “Even though I took the pink jersey there on the first day and I was often involved in breakouts later, even in the last week. But often I was also the first rider to get off.”
“I don’t know the reason, that makes it extra annoying.”
The week before the Tour, Van der Poel still had the idea that he was starting to ride better. “In the Tour the time trial disappointed me, after that it were fairly quiet days. But in the stage to Calais I already noticed that I was short. That also turned out to be the case today. I just have to hope it gets better. I also know the reason not. That makes it extra annoying.”