‘What the hell is going on?!’ – Why is Mathieu van der Poel not doing anything at the Tour de France?

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) ticked off another stage without incident at the Tour de France as his nemesis Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) soaked up the adulation again.

Stage 4 seemed ripe for a duel between cycling’s two finest multi-discipline stars but when Van Aert exploded clear on the final climb, Van der Poel was nowhere to be seen as he resigned himself to finishing in the main bunch.

In fact, Van der Poel has rarely been spotted at all in the opening four stages, save for a brief appearance at the top of the timesheets on the opening day time trial in Copenhagen.

It is in direct contrast to his thrilling outing at the Giro d’Italia earlier this season, when he dared to attack repeatedly to the delight of cycling fans – even if his madcap efforts only resulted in a solitary stage win.

“Mathieu what the hell is going on? Where’s van der Poel?” cried Adam Blythe on The Breakaway.

“That was perfect for him today for a while. Where was he?

“I get this feeling that the team’s holding him back – I really get the feeling.”

Dan Lloyd joked: “Where have you got that from? Is it the fact that he attacked on every single one of the 21 Giro stages and he’s not attacked once here?”

Are Alpecin-Deceuninck saving Van der Poel for Wednesday?

Much has been made about the cobbles on Stage 5, a parcours that seems almost tailormade for the Dutchman. The day certainly promises drama and incident, with 11 sections of pavé, totalling around 20km, set to make punctures and crashes a near-certainty.

“They’re holding him back for a stage that is such a gamble,” continued Blythe.

“He could go into that cobbles, first section tomorrow, [get a] double flat, [and] never see front again.

“He’s wasted four days of ‘trying something’. For me you can’t hold a guy like that back.

“You can’t just say, ‘forget about all the other stages’. Today we know he would have been there if tomorrow wasn’t on the cards but what’s the difference in holding Mathieu van der Poel back?

“It’s Van der Poel – let him go play!”

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