Among the serious candidates for a stage victory from the first week of the Tour de France, Mathieu Van der Poel was present this Thursday in Lille, the city departure from the 2025 edition, for a long intervention against the media with his teammate Jasper Philipsen. Asked about safety in cycling, the triple winner of Paris-Roubaix is one of those who think that the runners are too numerous, which causes more and more falls.
“This is normal because we all fight for the same positions and there is not always room for everyone,” he explains. But I think that the peloton still is a mistake. The first thing to do would be to limit the number of runners. ” The Tour de France, like the Giro and the Vuelta, the other two large towers, obtained the green light from the International Cycling Union (UCI) to invite an additional team this year.
Regarding the passage by Montmartre during the last stage of the Tour de France on July 27, Van der Poel estimated that it was going to “bring a lot of stress with a much more important peloton than to the Olympic Games”. “For our team, it’s not bad but I understand that other runners are not big fans,” he added. Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Wout Van Aert have all been critical of this foray on the Butte Montmartre, on the model of the Paris Olympics.
Very fit on the Dauphiné, the Dutchman Van der Poel hopes to perform at the start of the big loop. “It is obvious that in massive sprints, we will go with Jasper who has proven his value in recent years. On the more punchy steps we will have two playing cards, according to (de) how everyone feels, “said the grandson of Raymond Poulidor at the press conference at the Lille Opera.
“Delighted to start the tour on Saturday in Lille,” not far from the house and Roubaix “, the Dutchman born in Belgium expects a” exciting “first week but also” very nervous “.
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