{"id":804817,"date":"2026-07-16T22:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804817\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:10:11","slug":"baudin-takes-lessons-from-van-der-poel-to-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804817\/","title":{"rendered":"Baudin takes lessons from Van der Poel to Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

So far, this hasn\u2019t been the Tour de France for the attackers. UAE Emirates-XRG regularly thwarted their chances, although they did manage to hold on until the finish in Stage 9. Mathieu van der Poel won that stage<\/a>, but behind him, Alex Baudin<\/a> finished fourth. The EF-Fransman is taking a lesson from that day with him into Friday\u2019s stage, he told IDL Pro Cycling among others.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go back to last Friday first, when a challenging stage between the start in Malemort and the finish in Ussel was on the schedule for Day 9 of the Tour de France. A strong group, including Van der Poel, broke away, but UAE didn\u2019t let them get far. In the end, the four remaining escapees barely made it. Van der Poel won; Baudin was beaten in the sprint and finished fourth.<\/p>\n

That was the best result so far for the Frenchman from EF Education-EasyPost<\/a>, whom we had already seen attacking earlier in this Tour and, as a result, wearing the polka-dot jersey. Baudin was the big surprise at the Dauphin\u00e9 in June<\/a>, where he won the opening stage and thus wore the yellow jersey for five days. <\/p>\n

So Baudin came close to a victory only once in this Tour de France, which is a real shame for an attacker like him. No worries, though, as Friday\u2019s stage to Belfort looks to offer a great opportunity for a breakaway. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a great stage, and one that looks ideal for a breakaway,\u201d Baudin said.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"alex-baudin\"\/Baudin reflects on the stage won by Van der Poel: ‘If I end up in the sprint again…’<\/p>\n

According to the Frenchman, the course isn\u2019t exactly ideal. \u201cThe start is completely flat, so it\u2019ll be a lottery to get into the right breakaway. It often comes down to sheer luck, even though you always have to have the legs for it.\u201d On the flat, it can indeed be difficult for a rock-solid climber like Baudin to get into the right breakaway.<\/p>\n

How does he plan to hold his ground? \u201cIt\u2019s a little easier to keep up in the wheel, so you have to go with the flow a bit, without wasting too much energy. That\u2019s not always possible. Sometimes you follow the first and second riders, but it\u2019s the third one who ends up pulling away. You have to get a feel for the right rhythm,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear, at any rate, that Baudin has his sights set on Friday. \u201cThere\u2019s a good chance a large group will break away tomorrow. It could also take a long time for that to happen, so we\u2019ll see. I\u2019ll definitely try to be part of it,\u201d the Frenchman said optimistically.<\/p>\n

And if the EF rider manages to do that, he also has a clear game plan for the tough climb at the end. \u201cThe goal is to break away in the final stretch, because if I end up in a sprint with other riders again\u2026 we\u2019ve seen how that turned out,\u201d Baudin said with a smile, looking back on Stage 9<\/a>, in which he watched Van der Poel sprint to victory right in front of him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So far, this hasn\u2019t been the Tour de France for the attackers. UAE Emirates-XRG regularly thwarted their chances,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[350444,64,63,784,111365,77973,85,346968],"class_list":["post-804817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-alex-baudin","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-ef-education-easypost","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\/804817","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=804817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}