Van der Poel signals a likely breakaway for Wednesday's stage 17
Mathieu van der Poel is certainly capable of putting in a good time trial, but on Tuesday's stage 16 of the Tour de France he cruised home well down in 96th place, almost six minutes down to winner Remco Evenepoel (for reference, about 20% slower).
But it wasn't a bad day for the Alpecin-Premier Tech leader. With the team's sprint stage win ambitions largely foiled for Jasper Philipsen, Van der Poel signaled post-stage that the idea instead is to go all-in on Wednesday's stage 17, a course that looks promising for a breakaway.
"It was also a nice time trial, actually something that should suit me, but we decided quite early that we would save for tomorrow and Sunday," he told Dutch NOS television. Van der Poel won stage 9 from a breakaway, but he also suggested that Wednesday could be crucial for Philipsen in his underdog bid to get the green jersey off Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen. "It may be the last chance, so we decided to put everything on tomorrow," said Van der Poel, who predicted a vigorous fight for the break. "The first 50 or 60 kilometers in particular will be difficult," he promised.
