{"id":794012,"date":"2026-07-11T18:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T18:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/794012\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T18:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T18:32:08","slug":"pluimers-heads-into-stage-9-of-the-tour-de-france-in-good-form-and-under-the-time-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/794012\/","title":{"rendered":"Pluimers Heads into Stage 9 of the Tour de France in Good Form and Under the Time Limit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rick Pluimers<\/a> appears to have found his legs at just the right moment in the Tour de France. The 25-year-old Tudor debutant had passed through the opening week largely under the radar, even after sprint leader Arvid de Kleijn left the race. On<\/p>\n

Stage 8<\/a>, however, he surged to sixth place against the world\u2019s best sprinters, a result that immediately left him wanting more, he told IDL Pro Cycling.<\/p>\n

The closing kilometres of the Tour\u2019s eighth stage had a distinctly Dutch flavour. Mathieu van der Poel drove the pace at the front as the lead-out rider for Jasper Philipsen and Alpecin-Premier Tech. When the leading group began to break apart, Pluimers\u2019 black Tudor jersey suddenly appeared near the front. He expertly latched onto the right wheels and eventually sprinted to sixth place against the elite of the sprinting world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy with this,\u201d Pluimers said enthusiastically to Han Kock of NOS<\/a> immediately after the finish. \u201cI said it yesterday: hopefully I can get through the \u2018washing machine\u2019 in a good position. That worked today. A finale with more corners suits me much better than four kilometres on a straight road. It was hectic and dangerous, as always, but I managed to hold my position well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the Alpecin-Premier Tech train had put Pluimers in an excellent position. Olav Kooij of Decathlon CMA CGM and Tim Merlier of Soudal Quick-Step were also there, however, with Merlier ultimately taking the victory. \u201cWith a corner in the final kilometre, you know that not many riders will still be able to come past from behind. The main thing was therefore to stay with Olav and then\u2026 well, sixth place is a great result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the video<\/p>\n

Pluimers finds his legs ahead of the stages that truly suit him<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, as Pluimers rode alone towards the Tudor team bus, IDL Pro Cycling joined him on the move. While continuing to pedal, the Dutchman explained that things had finally clicked on the eighth day. \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to open up my legs for a week, but today they felt really good. In fact, for the first time in several days, they finally felt smooth.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was why Pluimers boldly followed the sprinters after the final corner, even as Van der Poel was going full gas with his lead-out. \u201cI could hold Kooij\u2019s wheel well, but for me it is just too difficult to come around him as well. That\u2019s why I\u2019m simply happy with sixth place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pluimers did not come to the Tour de France to sprint for himself, so the result is mainly an encouraging sign for the stages in which he genuinely wants to make an impact. That begins with Sunday\u2019s shortened Stage 9<\/a>. \u201cToday was a relatively calm day. That was nice on the one hand, but on the other hand it means that a lot of riders will have good legs on Sunday<\/a>.\u201dThe climb on Stage 8, where EF Education-EasyPost suddenly increased the pace, gave Pluimers another encouraging reference point. \u201cI was certainly not at my limit there, so that was a good sign. In the heat, though, you can suddenly find that limit and go straight beyond it. Huub Artz is right<\/a> when he says that you have to manage your energy very carefully. There will be attacks for a long time, so we\u2019ll have to divide the work between us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rick Pluimers appears to have found his legs at just the right moment in the Tour de France.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,172195,256234,85,346968,54302],"class_list":["post-794012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-idl-productions","tag-rick-pluimers","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-tudor-pro-cycling-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}