Can Van der Poel chase the green jersey in the Tour de France? "That does impact every race day"

Don’t bother asking the sharp-minded Roodhooft questions like “how exhausted was Mathieu on that final stretch?” Because despite their long working relationship, the CEO of the Belgian team still can’t read his star rider’s mind. “Those are really questions for Mathieu van der Poel himself,” he rightly replied.

Once it was clear the yellow was safe, his smile returned. “A stage win was, of course, the most important goal, but keeping yellow is a very nice consolation prize,” said Roodhooft. “Mathieu gave everything today, so this was the maximum possible. And it’s not just anyone who won today,” he added, referring to Tadej Pogacar.

Van der Poel is now on the same time as Pogacar and holds an eight-second lead over Jonas Vingegaard, while Remco Evenepoel sits at 58 seconds back. Wednesday brings the individual time trial in Caen. “It will be difficult to keep the yellow jersey, but it’s not impossible. It’s already been down to the wire twice between Tadej and Mathieu, and I expect another great battle with the same protagonists.”

“As Mathieu himself has said, he hasn’t spent much time on his time trial bike,” his team boss continued. “He was in Spain, but I don’t think he trained on it very much.” During the Critérium du Dauphiné, Van der Poel mentioned that he had worked a bit more on the discipline after the spring classics, but on Wednesday he will, of course, be up against some of the best time trialists in the world.

Van der Poel has now also pedaled his way into the battle for the green jersey, just one day after teammate Jasper Philipsen was forced to abandon the race. The Dutchman sits on 80 points, with only Biniam Girmay (87) and Jonathan Milan (92) ahead of him in the classification for green. “But will it become a goal? Not right now, at this moment.”

“There are a few riders who are in a much better position, and going for green really impacts every race day, so for now, that’s not the intention,” he concluded.