Roel van Sintmaartensdijk ready to go all-in for Biniam Girmay in his first Tour de France

Things are moving fast in the career of Roel van Sintmaartensdijk. The Dutchman made his WorldTour debut last year with Intermarché-Wanty and was immediately allowed to ride the Giro d'Italia in his first professional year, and then was selected for the Tour de France in his second season. IDLProCycling.com spoke with him before the Dutch National Championships.

“Roel's selection marks an important moment for our structure,” performance manager Aike Visbeek said in the team's press release. “In 2023, he was the first young talent to raise his arms with our U23 Continental Team. Now, he's the first from our development structure to make his debut in the Tour de France, which speaks volumes about the progress made and the hard work of our staff.”

The Belgian team is full of praise for Van Sintmaartensdijk, who completed the entire spring classics season this year and consistently performed well for the team leaders. That is why he has now been selected for the Tour de France, where Biniam Girmay will be the lead rider of Intermarché-Wanty.

“When I heard the news, it was like a dream come true. I heard it last week, but I had already done all the preparation with altitude training and everything,” explains the fast rider. “It had been the plan since winter to prepare for the Tour, even though it wasn't clear at the time whether I would be riding.”

“In the classics, I was already part of the core group around Biniam, and I was able to do what was asked of me,” says Van Sintmaartensdijk. “Last year, I also did the Giro, of course, but this is a different event. The Tour has even more spectators, more media attention, and is even faster: everything is just a bit more extreme. That makes it a bit more exciting.”

Van Sintmaartensdijk also knows what to expect. “I'll be riding entirely in support of Biniam and the other guys. That could mean riding at the front, but also positioning riders like Louis Barre and Georg Zimmermann.”

Girmay has not managed to win this year, which means that his third-stage victory in last year's Tour remains his last win. “As a team, we are actually riding even better, but it's just not clicking in terms of results. However, we have every confidence that he can achieve great results again, thanks to his preparation in Eritrea. Hopefully, we can match last year's performance.”