Zonneveld explains the very narrow window Van der Poel needs for a Tour de France stage win

Mathieu van der Poel returned to racing on Wednesday at the Tour de Suisse. That appearance is mainly about building towards the Tour de France. We didn't yet see him at the front of the race. What does that mean heading into the Tour de France? Thijs Zonneveld discussed this at length on the Dutch language podcast In De Waaier.

After his fourth place at Paris-Roubaix, we didn't see Van der Poel race for a long time. But on Wednesday came that long-awaited return at last. At the Tour de Suisse, the Alpecin-Premier Tech Dutchman would face plenty of climbing — exactly what he needs in his build-up to the Tour.

Zonneveld was therefore mainly curious about his compatriot's condition. "There's really still a fair bit to sharpen up before the Tour." In Switzerland, Van der Poel said that he'd found combining it with mountain biking difficult. "He's mentioned, for instance, that his back has been bothering him. We've obviously heard him talk about that often."

Because, as Zonneveld also knows: "It's a different position on the bike, and you take a lot more knocks to your back with mountain biking than on the road. That's always going to be a slightly weaker point for him, the back. I completely understand that he's had some trouble with it and that he's not yet at his absolute best," the analyst said.

Zonneveld therefore thinks Van der Poel is mainly trying to find that good feeling again in Switzerland. "Which he can then take into the Tour. If he wants to win stages there, they'll need to be stages that are tricky in some way, to shake off the sprinters." Even so, the Alpecin Dutchman is certainly not the only contender.

Because there's still that Slovenian in the rainbow jersey. "As soon as it gets even slightly difficult anywhere, you have to be able to go with Pogacar again. If there's even a traffic island in the road somewhere, you have to be able to follow that guy in the world champion's jersey when he attacks," Zonneveld said with a wink. Last year, Van der Poel did beat Pogi once at the Tour.

But, Zonneveld also knows: "Even then, there was a limit. If it was too long or too steep, he simply had to let go." So this year, his form will need to be excellent. "He really needs to climb very well at the Tour if he wants any chance of winning a stage. The margin is pretty thin. There's only a very small band of climbs in the finale that he can handle — where it's not so hard that he gets dropped, but hard enough to shake off the sprinters."

On those kinds of stages, Van der Poel is the favourite, Zonneveld believes. "But he needs to climb really well for that. That's exactly what he needs the Tour de Suisse for. There's only one stage where he can test that, and that's stage two. That's the most interesting one for Van der Poel, in my view," he said on Wednesday.

Van der Poel finished 103rd on that stage, just under a quarter of an hour behind stage winner Romain Grégoire.