Mathieu van der Poel, and El Tour de Francia.
Photo: EFE – MARTIN DIVISEK
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Aquejo of a pneumonia, Mathieu van der Poel left the Tour de France on Tuesday, before the Mont Ventoux stage, after having worn the yellow jersey for four days and having been one of the animators of the race.
It is the third time in five participations in which the triple winner of the Tour de Flandes and the Paris-Roubaix leaves the 'Grande Boucl' prematurely.
Unlike 2021, when he received criticism for leaving the tour in half to prepare the Tokyo Olympic Games, and 2022, when he was barely protagonist before leaving, the Dutch corridor has shone in this edition of the race with which he keeps a love-hate relationship.
We regret to announce that @mathieuvdpoel is forced to abandon the @Letour prematurely.
Mathieu had been experiencing symptoms of a common cold over the past few days. Yesterday afternoon, his condition began to worsen significantly. The team doctor monitored him closely… pic.twitter.com/wfVkP1Z1JG
-Alpecin-DEceuninck Cycling Team (@alpecindck) July 22, 2025
Only in recent days he played a more discreet role. And there was reason for it. Holded, he developed a pneumonia that prevented him from staying in the race.
On Monday afternoon “his state worsened significantly,” explained his Belgian team Alcion. To the point that, with fever, Van der Poel had to be transferred to the Narbonne hospital to undergo tests that detected a pulmonary inflammation.
A sad epilogue for a great tour made by 'MVDP'. Winner of the second stage in Boulogne-Sur-Mer, the 2023 world champion wore the yellow jersey for four days. He proudly brought him in the stage of the Brittany wall, where he won in 2021 paying an emotional tribute to his grandfather, the former French chorker Raymond Poulidor.
That was not all. To the attack almost every day, the Dutch was appointed more combative corridor of the first ten days of career.
He starred in an extraordinary getaway during the ninth stage when leaving from the first kilometer with his partner Jonas Rickaert and was not reached up to 700 m for finish.
No Ver Montmartre
It was a reconciliation of Van der Poel with the Tour, a career for which he recognized months ago “not feeling passion.”
“My relationship with the Tour is not going to change much. In it I have fought a lot in recent years, the tour of the first week this year adapts to my characteristics,” I relativized after his victory in Boulogne-Sur-Mer.
In 2023 and 2024 the tour was over, but with the mind also in the World Cups and in the Olympic Games in Paris, and exercising a luxury gregarious of Jasper Philipsen.
“The Tour is not the most important race for him. It is made for climbers. If you do not weigh more than 65 kg, you can win it. We like classics,” his father Adrie, also an former winner of the Flanders Tour.
Van der Poel was not a candidate to end up in the general classification – it was 41st this Tuesday at almost an hour and 50 minutes from Tadej Pogacar before leaving – and the perspective for the Alps was suffering.
But the green jersey of regularity was still within reach (3rd to 41 points from Jonathan Milan) although he assured that he was not his goal.
Yes aspired to lift his arms in the last stage in Paris, with the climb to the Montmartre neighborhood.
But now it will be “rest for at least a week before undergoing new medical exams to evaluate your recovery and determine the next steps,” said his team.
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