A thousand and one ways to honour cycling
Van der Poel and Rickaert give us a brilliant day of cycling from the break, the race splits in the wind, and the pace is sky-high on what was meant to be an active recovery day
Analysing what happens in a race isn’t simple, but after many hours watching on TV or being there, you end up doing it. What seems more valuable to me is putting myself in the position of the riders and their directors to understand why they make the decisions they make.
For example, I’ve tried to get inside the minds of all those teams who, after seeing Mathieu van der Poel go on the attack at kilometre 0, thought: “Look at that, the best Classics rider in the world goes in the break with another strong rouleur. What a great chance to go far. That’s why I’ll just stay in the bunch”.
I imagine it’ll be the same teams who, in 10 days, will be complaining – just like they did at 2024 Giro d’Italia – about Pogačar’s hunger and how he leaves no gaps for others to sneak through and fight for mountain breakaway wins.
Jonas Rickaert said at the finish line that his ride with Mathieu van der Poel started as a joke – but the Dutchman took it seriously. Just as seriously as he’s taking this Tour de France, finally delivering fireworks almost every day.
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