Insult to injury: Van der Poel fined by UCI after missing out on stage win

Mathieu van der Poel came so very close to his first victory in an individual time trial on Saturday. At stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse, the Dutch rider from Alpecin-Premier Tech was the fastest for a long time, but Tadej Pogacar ultimately edged him out by 0.31 seconds. It was a disappointing defeat, but satisfaction prevailed, until the UCI once again came knocking with a hefty fine.

"Almost history," Van der Poel said with a wry smile to Het Nieuwsblad after his second-place finish. But the disappointment didn't last very long. “I should also be happy with my strong performance. Of course, I would have loved to win, but if you start thinking about where you lost those 0.3 seconds… It’s better not to do that, because it comes down to such small details.”

"When did I realise I might actually be close? Only when I heard my split time," Van der Poel explains. “I was feeling good on the bike before that, but I hadn’t realized it would result in a time like that. My plan was to start fast and then fade toward the finish. And that’s exactly what I did. I think that was the right tactic.”

In the run-up to the Tour de France, Van der Poel had already trained extensively on his time trial bike, with the Tour de France team time trial in mind. It was nice to then test his legs in a race. “I generally prefer to go all out in a time trial that suits me. If you have to ride at about half speed, it often just feels tedious.”

Still, the Alpecin-Premier Tech team leader decided at the last minute to change his approach. “This morning, I decided to start on a different bike than the one I’d been training on for a month.” It’s safe to say that decision ultimately paid off, as evidenced by his amazing performance on Saturday.

After a few relatively quiet days on the race circuit, Van der Poel has really made his mark in the Tour de Suisse. “I actually knew going in that I was in good shape. My numbers during training were good. But I did struggle a bit with the heat during the first few days. And I didn’t want to push myself too hard just for a potential top-10 finish.”

That heat also played tricks on him during the time trial. In Aarburg, it was as high as 34 degrees. But the problems he had with the heat are a thing of the past after last year’s Tour. “Back then, I started doing heat acclimatization training before the Tour. And I have to say, that really helped.” This year, he’s done fewer heat training sessions. “Ideally, I’d do them three times a week, but they’re so grueling that after a session like that, it’s really hard to do another one just two days later.”

So after his time trial, it was hardly surprising to see Van der Poel on the hot seat with his shirt off. The UCI, however, deemed it inappropriate and imposed a hefty fine on the Dutchman: he had to pay 500 Swiss francs, officially for 'bringing the sport into disrepute.

After Lorena Wiebes' disqualification at the Giro d'Italia Women and Jan-Wilem van Schip's ongoing troubles, the UCI aren't likely to win anymore friends with this latest ruling.