Mathieu van der Poel relishes Classics flavour to 2025 Tour de France

Considering what Mathieu van der Poel has won during his glittering career to date, it’s somewhat a surprise to realise stage 2 of the 2025 Tour de France was only his second stage victory.

It beggars belief that a man with three Tours of Flanders, the same number of Paris-Roubaix victories and two Milan-San Remo wins can have only been successful at the world’s biggest race once before. 

To Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) though, this first week of the 2025 Tour is a week of Classics-style racing, and that suits him perfectly.

“Today was a bit like we are used to racing in the Classic races,” the Dutchman said in the post race press conference. “It’s super nervous all day, fighting for position, and I think as a team we are used to this, and we are also good at it, and I think the whole team is part of this success.

“Of course you need the legs, but it starts with positioning. Even with the best legs if you turn into the climb at position 50, it’s almost impossible to be in the front, the same as like in classic races. The key points are so important and I think we are used to this and that’s why we also excel as a team.”

Riding this style of race might come naturally to Van der Poel and his colleagues, but this is his fifth participation at the Tour with this team, and each edition includes at least some stages of windswept, lumpy, frantic stages that might be described as classics-style’, where fans would dub him the favourite. So what else has changed that might have precipitated Sunday’s success?

“We did a different approach, also doing the Dauphiné this year, I think this is a good choice. I think we learn every year about how we can be in the best possible shape and I think we try to copy a bit like we do in the classics season, with an altitude period and then racing Dauphiné. I think it was a good decision, but of course this Tour de France is also a parcours where I can really excel and is also makes a difference that there are a lot of opportunities.”

While stage 3 is more likely to be one where teammate Jasper Philipsen can repeat his stage one success, one opportunity Van der Poel is sure to have his eye on stage 7, when he will return to the scene of that first win four years ago. 

Back then we weren’t quite so used to the blistering, savage sprint which saw him take victory on the Mûr de Bretagne nor the emotion that followed. We’d not grown to love the battles with Tadej Pogačar, who he beat into second place then and did again on Sunday. And we certainly weren’t used to the special edition jerseys his team wore in memory of Van der Poel’s grandfather, Raymond Poulidor who had died earlier in 2021.

“The first year I did the Tour was a bit more emotional because that was the year he died,” he explained. “ Of course I wanted to race the Tour so bad when he was here, but that was not possible. Now I’m more proud to do it again, it’s been a while so, I’m just happy to win my second stage at the Tour de France.”