Lennert Van Eetvelt balks ahead of Tour: 'Month at altitude to gain 5%, and then you lose 10% with such a fall'

It won’t be long before Lennert Van Eetvelt (23) lines up for his first-ever Tour de France, representing Lotto Dstny. The Belgian rider proved himself ready for cycling’s biggest race after winning two WorldTour events in 2024 — the UAE Tour and the Tour of Guangxi — but following a crash at the Belgian Championships, he will be starting with some lingering doubts. Speaking to IDLProCycling.com, Van Eetvelt opened up about his situation.

The 23-year-old climber has been knocking on the door for a few seasons now, though his career has already seen its fair share of ups and downs. In 2024, he missed several race days due to illness and being hit by a vehicle. Still, he managed to win two major WorldTour events, placed eleventh at Strade Bianche, third at the Clásica San Sebastián, and seventh in Il Lombardia.

On the flip side, there was the Vuelta a España, where Van Eetvelt started off strong but was forced to abandon. And 2025 hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing either. His results — top ten finishes in races like Strade Bianche, the UAE Tour, and Volta a Catalunya — haven’t been bad, but a broken foot kept bothering him for quite some time. Just as things seemed to be aligning for the Tour, another setback occurred: a crash during the Belgian Championships.

On the Wednesday evening before the Tour de France, Lotto held its press event, just west of Lille. There, Van Eetvelt stepped in with patches on his legs and so the logical first question was: how are things now? 'I have some pain in my back. I hope it can be okay by Sunday,' said the Belgian, who would then be heading to Boulogne-sur-Mer to show himself for the first time.

Van Eetvelt took a step back after the Tour de Romandie and spent a long time preparing punctually for his Tour debut. "Then you go for a month at altitude to gain five percent, and then you fall and so you have lost ten percent...," the youngster pointed out. "That's a real shame, but I hope that all in all it won't be too bad and that I can still recover."

"For me after the spring it was really good to take it easy for a while, also with the broken foot I had," Van Eetvelt said. "I was finally able to train consistently for a few weeks and the team really gave me time for that towards the Tour. I also spent a week scouting stages before this Tour. Before the fall, my preparation went perfectly."

“The first day after a fall is always the worst, but things are starting to improve now,” Van Eetvelt explained. “I don’t have major abrasions, but my muscles are stiff and swollen from the impact.” He confirmed he would definitely be on the start line Saturday.

So what are Van Eetvelt’s goals for this Tour? “I always wanted to target the general classification in another Grand Tour before doing it at the Tour. But last year’s Vuelta was disrupted by circumstances, and I haven’t really been able to show what I’m capable of in terms of GC. But with the way racing goes these days, I’m not sure what other options I have.”

“I wouldn’t want to come in with the idea of just letting things go and hoping to get into a breakaway. The odds of getting in the right move are so slim,” he said. “I’d rather go for the GC. If I hit a wall, then so be it. But I want to push myself and stay involved in the race.”

“If I manage to hang in there for two weeks and then lose time in the final week, that’s just how it is. I’d rather do that than just sit back,” said Van Eetvelt, who specifically scouted some of the tougher stages in the first part of the race. “A lot of those stages are hard to read, but something like the Mur de Bretagne should really suit me. They’re technical finales. It’ll be exciting on TV — but very chaotic.”

Arnaud De Lie and Jenno Berckmoes could also thrive in those finishes. “That’s kind of a luxury,” Van Eetvelt noted. “There are a lot of stage finishes that suit all three of us, which can only play to our advantage.”