Lennert Van Eetvelt regrets dropping from Van der Poel breakaway: ‘I thought we were done’

Lennert Van Eetvelt spent much of Sunday in the day’s breakaway for Lotto-Intermarché. However, the Belgian stopped pushing in the finale because he believed the peloton was about to bring the move back. After the finish, he was left frustrated by that decision, especially after Mathieu van der Poel went on to win the stage from the breakaway.

“I’m disappointed in myself because I gave up before it was over. I thought the peloton had almost caught us,” Van Eetvelt sighed in an interview with Sporza.

“That was how I understood it. Or perhaps I read between the lines and came to that conclusion myself. When I heard that INEOS had also started riding and that we only had 30 seconds left, I thought our effort was doomed. But that turned out not to be the case,” Van Eetvelt explained. The Lotto-Intermarché rider admitted that a better result could have been possible. “With a slightly different mindset, yes.”

Van Eetvelt had already suffered a setback before the stage began. “Something suddenly went in my back last night. I wasn’t sure whether I would feel good today. My legs were better than expected, although it wasn’t very comfortable because of the pain in my back. But I’m disappointed in myself because I let the opportunity go.”

“My legs also played a part, but I thought it was over for us. It turned out that it wasn’t,” the Belgian continued. Van Eetvelt does not believe he would have been able to beat Van der Poel, but still feels he missed out on a valuable result. “I didn’t throw away a stage victory, but I did throw away a top-five finish. Still, the Tour is long. Tomorrow is the rest day, and tonight there will be cake.”