The French cycling circus will start again on Saturday. With at the start of the Tour de France Alkmaarder Cees Bol and Ramon Sinkeldam from Assendelft. Both cyclists from North Holland will have to help their leaders to stage victories in the sprint stages.
Sinkeldam will ride for Alpecin-Deceuninck this season. The team of leaders Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen. Sinkeldam will ride this Tour in the service of sprinter Jasper Philipsen. “I do the sprint preparation for Philipsen. Van der Poel will be the leader in the difficult stages,” said Sinkeldam.
“Nowadays every team brings its own cook and the riders lack nothing”
It will be his fifth Tour de France for 34-year-old Sinkeldam. He rode his first Tour in 2015 and saw cycling change in that time. The resident of Assendelft, for example, says that no cook went along in his first Tour. “Nowadays every team brings its own cook and the riders lack nothing.”
“abnormal”
It has been a while since Sinkeldam sailed through the varied French landscape. In recent years he has focused on the Vuelta and Giro. He last participated in the Tour in 2018. “It is the most famous and most important race of the year”, says the experienced Sinkeldam about the contrast between the different cycling rounds. “The big difference is also the attention that the Tour receives and I also think the level of cycling is abnormally high.”
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Historical record
Astana Qazaqstan has been Cees Bol’s new team since this season. The Kazakh team will be dominated by sprinter Marc Cavendish. Together with Eddy Merkx, he currently shares the record for most stage victories in the Tour with a total of 34 victories. Of course Cavendish is chasing his 35th stage victory these weeks.
“I certainly don’t speak Kazakh, but the most spoken language within the team is Italian”
“It is already special to take one stage victory in the Tour,” Bol told NH Sport. “Let alone if you can also become a record holder on your own.” Although, according to the Alkmaarder, that record is not a subject that is discussed much in the run-up to the Tour. “Above all, we want to appear at the start as well as possible and win stages. And then that record will come naturally.”
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Italian or Kazakh?
The working language in Bol’s new team is a thing. For example, the cheerful cyclist rode with only Kazakh teammates during the Four Days of Dunkirk. “I certainly don’t speak Kazakh and the most spoken language within the team is Italian. I’m trying to master that language,” says a diligent Bol about his first experiences with the Kazakh team. In addition to the language, there is also a considerable difference in culture and customs. “I find that very interesting.”
The 110th edition of the Tour starts on Saturday July 1 and ends on Sunday July 23. In total, the riders will complete 23 stages and the Tour will start this weekend in Bilbao, Spain.