Van der Poel doesn’t understand Pogacar and co’s ability to recover: “I’m glad I can mainly focus on the classics”

Van der Poel crossed the line in 22nd place, 1 minute and 20 seconds behind the winner. It was a beautiful farewell to yellow for the Dutchman. “Like I said, I was pretty sure I would lose the yellow jersey,” he said in the flash interview. “I tried to enjoy it as much as possible, and I did. To come back here, on the Mur de Bretagne, is really special, with the yellow on my shoulders. I’m happy.”

Four years ago, Van der Poel won on the Mur de Bretagne, but in stage seven it was always going to be tough. On the first ascent of the Breton climb, he already had to let a gap go, although he managed to come back later. “The first time up, I was almost dropped. I thought about what I was thinking when I attacked here back then. Times change. But I can be very proud of this first week.”

The finale of the tough stage was marred by a nasty crash involving João Almeida, Enric Mas, Ben Healy, and Santiago Buitrago. His teammate Jack Haig was the first to abandon as a result of the crash. Luckily, Van der Poel was ahead of it. “I heard it, and when I looked back, I saw a lot of riders on the ground. I don’t know what happened, but hopefully everyone is okay.”

Now that the yellow jersey is on Pogacar’s shoulders, Van der Poel can focus on other things. The former world champion is currently fourth in the points classification, around 50 points behind Pogacar. Will that become his new focus? “We’ll see. Today I tried to be there if it wasn’t too hard, but today was all out just to get any points at all. I tried to focus on the final climb, but we’ll see. First, I want to recover from these last few days.”

Because recovering is definitely necessary after seven intense days. Van der Poel won uphill on day 2, grabbed the yellow jersey again, threw himself into the brutal finale of a tougher stage 4 to take second place, and after losing yellow to Pogacar in the stage 5 time trial, he boldly took it back the next day after yet another unbelievably hard day in the breakaway. With just a one-second lead over the Slovenian UAE rider, he went into stage 7 with his tank already pretty empty.

“I know that if I want to keep up with the best on a finish like that, I need my absolute best legs. And I knew beforehand that I wasn’t going to have them today,” Van der Poel said relaxed to NOS. “I’m definitely not a robot, and I sometimes wonder how the others recover so well every single day. I’m glad I can mainly focus on the classics. Because I knew I was going to lose the yellow jersey, I probably enjoyed this stage even more.”

And if his legs recover a bit after two sprint stages on Saturday and Sunday? “Then I want to go for a stage win in the second and third week as well,” Van der Poel said during the English media press moment.