Mathieu van der Poel is once again giving it his all in a time trial

Mathieu van der Poel isn’t known as a true time trial specialist, but if he sets his mind to it, he can record a decent result against the clock. That doesn’t happen all that often for the Alpecin-Premier Tech rider, but on Saturday at the Tour de Suisse, he says he wants to test his legs once again in and around Aarburg.

Van der Poel finished fifth on Friday in the third stage of the WorldTour race and said he felt sharper than he had in the days leading up to it. This helped dispel some of his own doubts. “It was also less hot. That made me feel much better right away. I’m satisfied. On the climbs at the start of the stage, I was able to keep up without any problems,” he told the AD.

The final weekend of the Tour de Suisse consists of a 23-kilometer individual time trial and a mountain stage in and around Villars-sur-Ollons. On paper, Van der Poel no longer has a chance of winning a stage, but he still wants to give it his all on Saturday. This is primarily with an eye toward the Tour de France, which begins with a team time trial.

If Alpecin-Premier Tech manages to limit the damage there, Van der Poel may still have a chance at the yellow jersey in the days that follow. “The plan is to go all out again on Saturday. We’ll see how I feel,” MVDP confirmed to the AD. Van der Poel will start his individual time trial at 4:10 p.m., a full hour before yellow jersey holder Tadej Pogacar.

When Van der Poel sets his sights on a time trial, he tends to do quite well. Last year, he finished sixth in the time trial at the Critérium du Dauphiné, also in the run-up to the Tour de France. In the Tour de France, he finished 18th in the time trial in Caen.

Van der Poel’s strongest performance on a time trial bike may well have come in the 2021 Tour de France. There, against all odds, he retained the yellow jersey by finishing fifth in the 27-kilometer time trial to Laval.