Mathieu van der Poel quit to lose the Tour de France lead in the fifth stage of the test

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Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Phoenix) enjoyed his second day in the Tour de France yellow jersey, heading to Fougeres in 12th behind stage winner Mark Cavendish to maintain the race lead in Wednesday’s individual trial.

However, the Dutch rider admitted that the 27.2km test from Changé to Laval could be the end of his journey in Maillot jaune.

“It’s going to be difficult for me, we have to be realistic about that,” Van der Poel said. “I don’t practice that much [the time trial bike]But I will do everything I can to keep the shirt.”

Van der Paul rarely has to put his efforts into a solo test to defend the race lead, although in 2019 he used a 14.4km test at the Tour of Britain to snatch the race lead from Mathieu Trenten on his way to winning the overall competition. Element.

At Laval, he’s facing pressure from Julien Alaphilippe (Dekonink-Kwikstep), who is only eight seconds behind on aggregate, and Tour de Suisse winner Richard Carapaz (Inios Grenadiers) and Wat van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) at 31 seconds.

Van Aert, the three-stage winner of the Tour de France, was on his way to winning a stage in the 2019 edition when he hit barriers and crashed. The Belgian was on the list of all the expert riders most likely to take the yellow jersey on stage five.

“Hopefully I can win the stage,” Van Aert said. “Then the rest will follow at the end.” “I’m half a minute behind Mathieu. But there are still a lot of good riders in my area in the standings. I hope it’s possible. But again, I want to do the best time trial possible. Then we’ll see where we end up.”

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