Van der Poel was less than satisfied with 7th place at Tour de France stage 1: 'That wasn’t realistic'

After the first stage of the Tour de France, Mathieu van der Poel was not entirely satisfied with the team time trial in Barcelona. The Dutch team leader had high hopes for Alpecin-Premier Tech, which had invested heavily in the TTT over the past few months. The result was 'just' a seventh-place finish.

"I had to dig deep, but that makes sense when the finish line is at the top of a little climb," Van der Poel began his story after the finish, speaking to NOS. Sitting on the side of the road, after downing a large bottle of water, he caught his breath.

"It went well, though we lost a couple of riders sooner than expected. Because of that, I had to put in a few more intense efforts along the way, when I really shouldn't have had to," he continued, offering a sharp analysis. "That took a lot of energy, but overall, we rode a decent time trial."

Van der Poel crossed the finish line solo for Alpecin-Premier Tech and narrowly beat the fastest time set up to that point. However, he knew immediately after his effort that it wouldn’t be enough for the stage win. That proved to be the case, as Netcompany INEOS quickly beat that time by half a minute, with Filippo Ganna.

Visma | Lease a Bike ultimately won the team time trial, with Van der Poel as his team’s first rider to finish, 39 seconds behind. “I think we got the most out of it as a team. Starting with the final climb, the plan went perfectly, with Emiel Verstrynge still in the mix.”

"Before that, though, we lost two or three riders a little too quickly, on sections where we might have needed them the most. But that’s just how it goes in a team time trial—those things can happen. Personally, I never thought about winning; that wasn’t realistic."

Still, Van der Poel said something interesting on NOS about what he considered the most favorable time gap to the rest of the field. “If we can limit the gap to half a minute, or at most a minute, then you’re still halfway among the pack, with a chance to try something.”

With 39 seconds left on the yellow jersey, Van der Poel got what he wanted in that regard, though he immediately added that his ambitions for Stage 2 of the Tour de France might need to be tempered a bit. “Tomorrow’s stage will be tougher than anyone thinks. But I’m happy with how I feel.”