{"id":797293,"date":"2026-07-13T09:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/797293\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T09:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:56:11","slug":"van-der-poels-attitude-proved-key-to-his-tour-de-france-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/797293\/","title":{"rendered":"Van der Poel’s attitude proved key to his Tour de France win"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> sets his sights on something, he\u2019s often not far from victory. And so, at Alpecin-Premier Tech<\/a>, the team headed into the team cars for Stage 9 feeling very confident, after seeing and hearing from their team leader. A victory in the Tour de France was the goal for Sunday, and they achieved it with flying colours<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Van der Poel passed through the mixed zone on Sunday afternoon, he had to stop at least six times. Everyone had him pegged for the ninth stage of the Tour, and he himself had high expectations as well. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how it goes, because it\u2019s a tough stage either way. I think there will be a big battle for the breakaway. The fact that the stage has been shortened by 30 kilometers won\u2019t make much of a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

With temperatures above 40 degrees, Van der Poel replied, seemingly cool and eager: \u201cI don\u2019t know if you can ever fully get used to such temperatures, because they\u2019re extreme conditions. But the day before the rest day is often a very tough stage, so I think everyone has prepared for a long and hard race.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"mathieu-van-der-poel<\/p>\n

Mathieu van der Poel<\/p>\n

Alpecin-Premier Tech saw a focused and playful Van der Poel<\/p>\n

Van der Poel was certainly ready for it, and the team had already noticed that. In addition to two strong lead-outs for Jasper Philipsen in Stages 7 and 8, he also came out of his shell off the bike. \u201cMorale has always remained high, and Mathieu helps keep it that way with his jokes\u2014they have a lot of fun together,\u201d observed team director Frederik Willems in an interview with IDL Pro Cycling.<\/p>\n

“He was a bit quieter the first two days, but he\u2019s really come into his own now,” said the Belgian, who saw a focused team leader on the bus before the start of Stage 9. “Mathieu listened very carefully during today\u2019s meeting, paying attention to every detail. He\u2019d already done a good lead-out the last two days, so we were pretty confident.”<\/p>\n

Team manager Christoph Roodhooft was also optimistic about the stage. \u201cOver the past two days, there were a lot of positive signs from him, so we were quietly hopeful on the bus this morning that he\u2019d be in the lead group. He was really strong and even broke up the lead group again on that final climb. He found himself in a situation where he rarely comes up short.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Alpecin-Premier Tech finally wins in the first week\u00a0of the Tour de France<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t really keep me up at night that everyone’s right on my wheel,” Van der Poel said before the start. He demonstrated that perfectly. With every attack, fewer riders were able to keep up, and the sprint was impressive. \u201cIt was a really great one, that\u2019s for sure. I\u2019m really happy with it,\u201d said Roodhooft. \u201cThe stage was shortened, but it was still extremely tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Mathieu was also very happy about it, especially since we came into the Tour in top form and things just weren’t going our way in the first few days,” the Belgian team manager reflected on eight days without a victory. \u201cThat\u2019s not fun, after all the work you\u2019ve put into it. There was no doubt, but it certainly wasn\u2019t fun. To be able to head into the rest day like that is pretty special, after all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"mathieu-van-der-poel-roxanne-bertels\"\/Van der Poel and his team are aiming for more in the Tour de France<\/p>\n

Van der Poel\u2019s victory is one that already makes the Tour de France a success for the team, but at the same time, it leaves them hungry for more. \u201cWe still have ambitions. Of course, this makes up for a lot, but I hope this is just the beginning,\u201d Roodhooft said ambitiously. \u201cHe\u2019s a special rider, isn\u2019t he? That was proven once again today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van der Poel dug in for the stage and never let up. Suddenly, his legs were turning, and the heat no longer seemed to bother him\u2014as Willems also noticed. \u201cI think he learned a lot from last year\u2019s Tour de France, and the fact that he lives in Spain certainly helps a lot when it comes to the heat. Of course, 40+ is extreme for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Mathieu van der Poel sets his sights on something, he\u2019s often not far from victory. And so,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[221189,64,63,784,77973,85,346968],"class_list":["post-797293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-alpecin-premier-tech","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797293","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=797293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}