wout poels tour de france 2022

• Vuelta Femenina

Tour de France stage 15: Wout Poels wins mountain stage

Pogačar and Vingegaard finish together on last summit finish before second rest-day

Nick Aldridge

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Wout Poels wins his first Grand Tour stage win

Bahrain Victorious secured their second win in the space of a week at the Tour de France , as Wout Poels emerged from a large breakaway to take his first Grand Tour stage victory after years of dedicated service on behalf of teammates.

His efforts would be reserved for his own attack this time around, with the Dutch climber dropping Wout van Aert ( Jumbo-Visma ) atop Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc. The last time that the Tour visited this category-one test, Poels was all set to contest the win for Team Sky, but their plans were derailed by Chris Froome 's crash prior to the final climb. No such duties foiled Poels this time around, with the 35-year-old winning a stage in the 21st Grand Tour of his career. “I always dreamed to win a stage at the Tour. I won a Monument and now a stage in the Tour," exclaimed Poels in disbelief at the finish. "When you are young, you dream of it, look at all the people watching on tv and at the side of the road. The Tour is the Tour." Referring to the four Tours de France he helped Team Sky (now Ineos Grenadiers ) achieve with team leaders Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal , Poels was in a reflective mood at the finish. "I’ve had great memories at this race; this is my tenth. I’ve always worked for people, so it’s incredible to have my chance and achieve this dream."

Racing recap

Stage 15 of the Tour de France was another incredibly tough Alpine stage at the Tour de France with a summit finish to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, with several other passes along the way to finish the second week.

There were many attacks to get in the breakaway of the day and in the end, it was Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) who got in a two-up move.

A crash in the peloton behind took down a lot of riders and because of this the two up front managed to get a lead of eight minutes.

A huge group of 32 riders then started off following those up front, including Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Dylan Teuns (Israel Premier-Tech), Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Mike Woods (Israel Premier-Tech) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis).

At the foot of the Col de la Forclaz, the chasing group had nearly caught the two up front and were within a minute of them.

Alaphilippe began to drop Lutsenko on the descent but the pair remained together and after the descent, they were caught by the chasers.

On the Col des Aravis, an attack from Mark Soler (UAE Team Emirates) saw Wout van Aert and Wout Poels follow and the three riders got a gap and went on alone. There were several crashes on the descent but the three up front continued together.

On the climb preceding the final one, Wout Poels managed to attack and immediately got a gap on the other two. Poels continued up the final climb and kept extending his lead, he eventually won comfortably by over two minutes from Van Aert, with Soler having dropped back to help his team leader Tadej Pogačar.

This was Poel’s first-ever Grand Tour stage win, after being in the winning teams working for Chris Froome on other occasions, he finally got his own win today.

The GC favourites then hit the final climb and steadily riders dropped away until it was just three up front, Pogačar, teammate Adam Yates and the yellow jersey of Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).

They set a pace at the front until Adam Yates rode away, apparently unaware that he’d dropped his leader, but he managed to bridge across to Soler and put time into Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), who had joined them at the front, and hone in on a podium spot. Pogačar and Vingegaard behind were equally matched and neither could shake the other.

They sprinted for the line but ultimately crossed it together, maintaining Vingegaard’s slim ten-second lead on GC. With a rest day tomorrow and a time trial the next day, will the GC be as evenly matched coming out of it?

Tour de France - Stage 15

• Dates 16 Jul
• Race Length 179 kms
• Start Les Gets
• Finish Saint Gervais Mont-Blanc
• Race Category Elite Men

Bahrain Victorious

• Nationality Bahrain
• Founded 2018
• Team Principal Milan Eržen
• UCI Code TBV
• Bike Sponsor Merida

• Team Bahrain Victorious
• Nationality Netherlands
• UCI Wins 24
• Height 1.86m

Jonas Vingegaard

• Team Team Visma | Lease a Bike
• Nationality Denmark
• UCI Wins 35
• Height 1.75m

Tadej Pogacar

• Team UAE Team Emirates
• Nationality Slovenia
• UCI Wins 74
• Height 1.76m

Merida is a bike manufacturer based in Changhua, Taiwan. The company specialises in road and mountain bike bikes as well as a range of electric bikes. Merida’s original purpose was to improve the perception of Taiwanese-built bicycles.

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Wout Poels powers to win at Tour de France while Jonas Vingegaard maintains lead

Bahrain victorious rider takes honours on stage 15 that was held up by huge crash caused by fan taking selfie.

Dutch rider Wout Poels wins Stage 15 of the Tour de France on July 16, 2023. EPA

Bahrain Victorious rider Wout Poels won Stage 15 of the Tour de France on Sunday while Jonas Vingegaard maintained his 10-second overall lead over Tadej Pogacar.

Poels was the last survivor of a big breakaway group that had gone clear of the main peloton after a crash caused by a spectator 50 kilometres in reshaped the 179km stage from Les Gets to Saint-Gervais.

The 35-year-old came to the foot of the final climb up to Saint-Gervais with Wout van Aert but immediately attacked as the road ramped up and gradually eased clear to take the win by more than two minutes.

Jumba Visma's Van Aert was second almost a minute ahead of TotalEnergies rider Mathieu Burgaudeau in third.

Reigning champion Vingegaard and two-time winner Pogacar, who crossed the line side by side, finished more than six minutes behind Poels.

“I always dreamt to win a stage in the tour, especially what happened in the last few weeks with Gino [Mader]. All the emotions came. I've won a monument and a tour stage,” said Poels, who is the 68th stage winner from the Netherlands at the Tour de France.

“I started to believe in the last kilometre, I had to keep fighting. I went full gas. It was amazing.

😍Ecstatic. 😍Extatique. #TDF2023 | @woutpoels | @BHRVictorious pic.twitter.com/kp0iDJvT81 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 16, 2023

“I didn't have the perfect preparation for the Tour. The team took me here, they believed in me. Here we are.

“I really enjoyed my period with Sky, being in the winning team four times. But finally I can fight for a stage win today. It's great.”

Pogacar, meanwhile, is happy with how the race is looking going into a much-needed rest day for riders, despite failing to cut into Vingegaard's lead.

“I felt that Jonas was super good and I knew that I couldn't really drop him,” said the Slovenian. “The climb was too easy. We tried to improvise in the end and Adam [Yates] took some seconds also. It's good that he's coming back in the GC and close to the podium.

“I think we can go with big, big confidence. We have good legs and everybody is super good. Now tomorrow, a rest day. Let's see after that and then it's two stages to go full gas for the team.

“I know the time trial pretty good. I hope it suits me pretty well. It's a really good parcours and I cannot wait to start it.”

💥 🇸🇮 @TamauPogi attacks in the last kilometer 💥 🇸🇮 @TamauPogi attaque dans le dernier km #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/isNZeVJFWI — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 16, 2023

Earlier in the race, three of Vingegaard's teammates crashed after a spectator taking a selfie prompted a mass pile-up of 20 riders.

With about 125km remaining Team Jumbo-Visma rider Sepp Kuss had his handlebars knocked by a supporter who was holding out a phone.

Kuss swerved into teammate Nathan van Hooydonck, who fell off his bike, causing a crash behind him. All the riders were able to continue.

“There was a narrowing in a town, just a spectator was out in the road and just clipped my handlebar,” Kuss said about the mass crash. “Luckily I'm OK I think. I hope that the other guys in the crash are all right. It's not ideal.

“It's been such a hard race, everybody is a bit tired and you lose a bit of alertness. There are always things that are a bit out of your control as well. Aside from nervous moments, sometimes there are crashes because of fatigue.”

Wout Poels solos to summit stage 15 victory at the Tour de France

Wout Poels has taken a brilliant Tour de France stage win on stage 15, powering ahead of his breakaway companions on another thrilling day of action.

Stage 15 of the Tour de France is set to see another battle between the almost perfectly balanced Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, whilst Carlos Rodríguez and Jai Hindley continue a ferocious fight for the third spot on the podium.

Prize Money Tour de France 2023 - Full guide to how €2.308.029 will be split between teams

The fight to get into the breakaway was a fierce one today. Numerous groups thought they had made the successful move but with 30km's gone the break was still yet to fully snap the elastic.

With 50km's gone, the fight was still ongoing, every composition of the break being chased down hungrily by the peloton.

Then, for the second straight day, the race was rocked by a massive crash after a fan who was not paying attention took out Sepp Kuss, causing the peloton to fall down like dominoes.

Almost by accident due to that crash, the breakaway finally looked like gaining a gap. Once the race settled down, a mammoth group of 36 riders were up ahead of the main group and chasing the leading duo of Julian Alaphilippe and Alexey Lutsenko.

Best placed of the riders up the road was Guillaume Martin, who started the day 16:50 down. As the gap began to extend upwards of eight minutes, the Frenchman was moving up in the GC.

At the top of the first categorised climb of the day, Alaphilippe and Lutsenko remained around 30 seconds ahead of their chasers. Once that group did crest the top it was Giulio Ciccone who edged out Neilson Powless in the battle for King of the Mountains points. Nevertheless, Powless retook the lead in the classification from Jonas Vingegaard.

With 85km to go, the two leaders were finally swallowed up by the group of chasers, meaning 38 riders now were together at the front of the race.

Marco Haller decided to attack from the leading group ahead of the Col de la Croix Fry and was soon joined and then passed up front by Rui Costa.

Disappointingly for Powless in his quest for KOM points, the American was part of the first group of riders dropped from the break.

Although the pace back in the peloton wasn't extremely high, worryingly for French fans, David Gaudu was struggling to hold the wheel.

When Marc Soler attacked at the front of the race, it turned into something of a proxy, Jumbo-Visma/UAE Team Emirates war with Wout van Aert leading the chase.

As the race made it's way towards the final climb of the day, a number of riders were taken out of stage win contention from the breakaway with Krists Neilands being taken out by a race motorbike.

With 25km to go, a leading trio of van Aert, Soler and Wout Poels held an advantage of just over a minute from a group of 15 chasers.

As they began to climb the penultimate climb, Poels launched his move, taking the lead solo at the front of the race.

Back in the GC group, UAE Team Emirates took to the front of the bunch for the first time, upping the pace at the bottom of the climb.

With Poels beginning the final climb of the day, he held a 31 second lead over Soler and van Aert with the remainder of the break over two minutes down and the GC riders over 7 minutes back.

In the GC group, Simon Yates, Jai Hindley and Tom Pidcock were all being put into difficulty as Rafal Majka fired away at the front. Someone who had seemingly had a second wind was David Gaudu, the Frenchman was battling hard to stay in the thinning group.

When Adam Yates took over from Majka, only Vingegaard and Pogacar were able to keep the wheel.

Soon even those two were struggling and Yates began to ride clear with Rodriguez regaining contact with the rest of the podium.

Entering the final kilometre, Pogacar launched his move. Vingegaard was fighting with every peddle stroke to hold the wheel and the pair crossed the line side by side.

Route Analysis | Profiles & Route Tour de France 2023

Motorbikes involved in pogacar controversy pulled from tour de france.

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Wout Poels: "I always dreamt of winning a Tour de France stage"

“I really love this moment. I always dreamt of winning a stage in the Tour de France. Obviously, with Gino [Mäder’s death in June], it has a special meaning. It means a lot to win a stage in the Tour. It makes me super happy. I only started to believe in it in the final kilometres. I had to go full gas. It was amazing, amazing. Gino was helping me today. I thought I had the perfect approach to the Tour. I skipped the Dauphiné but I did pretty well at the Tour of Slovenia [9th] and the team took me to the Tour. They believed I could perform in the third week… and here I am. I really enjoyed my time with Team Sky. It was an incredible experience, but yet I never could fight for stage win. I could do it today and I’m very happy.”

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Wout Poels: From altitude camp to first win since 2019

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BAZA, Spain (VN) -- Wout Poels is flying high in his 2022 season debut after sleeping high at altitude on Tenerife’s Teide volcano.

The 34-year-old Dutch climber was parked on the flanks of Spain’s highest mountain along with five other Bahrain Victorious teammates in a pre-season training camp at altitude.

The stint already is paying off dividends. He parachuted into the Ruta del Sol this week, and kicked to his first victory since 2019 in quick succession.

“It was the first time I did altitude so early in the season before my first race,” Poels said after winning stage 4. “I quite like it. It worked pretty well.”

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In fact, the rider whom Poels beat in the two-rider breakaway in the decisive climbing stage at the five-day Ruta -- Alexey Lutsenko -- also recently came off an altitude camp.

Lutsenko won his first race in 2022 directly after a camp at Teide when he powered away from the field at the Clasica Jaen Paraiso Interior on Monday.

“Lutsenko was also there, it was busy up there. It was like the whole peloton there,” Poels said of his recent Teide camp. “My reason is because I want to do two altitude camps before the Giro and it fits in really well.”

Teide volcano was packed with ‘the whole peloton’

Poels joined Bahrain Victorious teammates Jack Haig, Damiano Caruso , Sonny Colbrelli, and Gino Mader at the block on Teide.

The towering volcano, which tops out at more than 12,000 feet, is one of the most popular altitude training camp destinations in the WorldTour.

The “parador” hotel perched on the volcano’s crater is typically booked up with dozens of top WorldTour pros.

The comments reveal how altitude camps are now a permanent fixture in WorldTour racing, and how the stints at altitude are coming earlier and earlier in the season.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jack Haig (@jack_haig)

A generation ago, a top GC rider might try to squeeze in one 10-day or two-week camp at altitude right before a grand tour.

Today, many of the top pros are transitioning directly from altitude camps and diving straight into competition, often with impressive results. And then going back to altitude.

Poels said he’s planning two more altitude camps before taking on the Giro d’Italia later this season.

Poels told the media he’s putting the Ardennes and a return to the Giro at the center of his plans. Mikel Landa will be one of the leaders, but Poels confirmed he will “see my own opportunities.”

Ruta del Sol: Poels snatches leader’s jersey and win

On Saturday, Poels and Lutsenko peeled away from the elite group of attackers who broke free on two first-category climbs early in the stage over the Sierra Nevada.

Bahrain Victorious also slotted Haig and Caruso into the move, while Astana saw defending champion Miguel Angel Lopez into the winning break.

Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) was among a handful of riders racing without teammates in the leading group. The British rider, who climbed into seventh overall at 21 seconds back, said there wasn’t a lot of cooperation from behind.

“I knew I was going to get out-numbered with Bahrain and Astana there. They had a lot of numbers, and there wasn't a lot of cooperation there,” Yates said.

“I need to look at the GC and have a proper look tonight. And then we'll go from there,” Yates said about taking on Woels and Bahrain in Sunday’s showdown. “You saw the numbers they had there in the front group. A lot of us were on our own there, so if they're strong again tomorrow they'll be hard to beat. We'll always give it a crack.”

#RdS68 🇪🇸 A thrilling stage to watch, and a fantastic ride from @SimonYatess to finish off a brilliant effort with a sprint to 4th 👏💪 Poels (TBV) wins stage 4 🏁 pic.twitter.com/m4C986Px1H -- Team BikeExchange-Jayco (@GreenEDGEteam) February 19, 2022

Poels and Lutsenko powered toward the line, but with the gap eventually dropping to just 18 seconds to the chasers, there was no time for bargaining.

“If I knew that tomorrow would be flat and I would win the GC, then maybe we do it,” said Poels, confirming there was no deal hatched on the stage.

“The thing is, I also don’t have so many victories the past few years, so every opportunity you get, you have to take.

“It was time again to win, and it’s a super-nice feeling,” he said. “I had a really nice winter, and I trained really hard. It’s nice that it straight away pays off.

“I was riding for GC also, and I know I have a strong sprint in the end, but the conditions were not ideal because we had a headwind, so it was a little bit of a gamble,” he said. “It was just enough, so I’m happy.”

The 68th Ruta will be decided in Sunday’s finale ending with a steep final climb.

Poels leads Lopez by 10 seconds, and nearly another dozen riders are hovering within less than a half-minute.

Everything will be decided on the Cat. 2 climb to Chiclana de Segura. With no time bonuses on the line, it’s Poels’ race to lose.

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Tour de France 2021 – Michael Woods and Wout Poels promise a polka dot battle to savour

Updated 10/07/2021 at 17:22 GMT

A thrilling tussle between Michael Woods and Wout Poels in the foothills of the Pyrenees during Stage 14 ensured that, if the yellow jersey battle may be a little sterile, we still have a fight for the polka dots on our hands. You can watch the Tour de France live and ad-free on the Eurosport app and Eurosport.co.uk

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Michael Woods in the polka dot jersey after Stage 14 of the Tour de France 2021

Image credit: Getty Images

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Tour de France #15: Wout Poels wins his first Grand Tour stage at 35

Filed Under: cycling news , road cycling , Tour de France Tagged With: News , Tour de France , Wout poels

July 16, 2023 by Michael Behringer Leave a Comment

Cycling: Wout Poels won the 15th stage of the Tour de France. The Dutchman defeated his namesake Wout van Aert as a breakaway and thus celebrated a stage win in a Grand Tour for the first time in his career. There was no time gap between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.

Wout Poels leaves Wout van Aert

Out of a large leading group Wout poels (Bahrain – Victorious) took his first stage win in a Grand Tour. The 35-year-old Dutchman was able to break away from the peloton with 37 other riders at the beginning of the stage. At the Col de la Croix Fry and the Col des Aravis he then sat down together wout van aert (Jumbo – Visma) and Krists Neilands (Israel – Premier Tech) from. The Latvian fell back after a fall. And the Belgian couldn't hold Poels' rear wheel as it went up the Côte des Amerands. With this, Wout Poels celebrates another great success in the late autumn of his career. Among other things, he won the 2016 Liège - Bastogne - Liège and 2022 the Ruta del Sol.

38 outliers, including Politt & Haller

No fewer than 38 men dared to join the breakaway group on the 179-kilometer stage from Les Gets les Portes du Soleil to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc. Among others, there were wout van aert (Jumbo – Visma), Marc Soler (UAE), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama – FDJ), Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious), Julius Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin – Deceuninck), William Martin (Cofidis), Warren Barguil (Arkéa – Samsic), as well as the German Nils Politt and the Austrian Mark Haller from the Bora-hansgrohe team.

Hindley and Gall lose valuable time

Between Tadej pogacar (UAE) and jonas vingegaard (Jumbo – Visma) there should be no lag today. The man in white and the man in yellow crossed the finish line together. Pogacar has attempted an attack twice before. But Vingegaard was again undeterred. This means that the Slovenian and the Dane are still only ten seconds apart. Things weren't going so well for Jay Hindley (Bora – hansgrohe) and Felix Gall (AG2R - Citroën). The Australian lost valuable time fighting for third place because he couldn't keep up with the best on the final climb. The Austrian was unlucky with a defect.

12 years after his first Grand Tour stage win, 35-year-old Wout Poels gets the biggest victory of his career at the Tour de France #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/NKFc5CL8Md - Eurosport (@eurosport) July 16, 2023

About Michael Behringer

Cycling with all its tactics, stage analyses, placements and forecasts are Michael Behringer's great passion. In 1996 he tracked his first Tour de France. Since then he has observed almost every race. His passion for cycling has been with him for over two decades. There is no end in sight.

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Tour de France 2022: Wout van Aert wins Stage 20 time-trial as Jonas Vingegaard seals overall victory

Some of the specialists posted decent times but none could match the Belgian, while the top three on GC all confirmed their positions before the Paris processional

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Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) surprised no one by winning the Stage 20 Individual Time-Trial at the 2022 Tour de France in a time of 47:59.86.

Adding to an amazing 2022 Tour de France for him and his Jumbo-Visma team, the Belgian – resplendent in his green skinsuit – simply knocked chucks of time off of everyone who'd gone out before him at each checkpoint to come in 42 seconds ahead of Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), who was leading until then.

So quickly was Van Aert going while out on the course, team cars of riders who'd set off before him were being instructed to pull over as he was "coming up fast".

His teammate Jonas Vingegaard, leading the race overall, went out hard and for a time looked like he might take the stage win, but knocked the pace off a bit after a scary moment on a descent in the last third of his TT.

Solidifying their places in the overall General Classification, second place Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and third place Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) also raced hard – with the latter riding a negative split to make the result look like it might be closer than it had appeared in the earlier kilometres.

Those two riders went either slightly above or slightly below Van Aert's splits over the course of the 40.7km route, but never looked likely to topple either of the Jumbo-Visma riders for stage honours.

Ultimately, Van Aert had paced it best and took the stage. However, the best three riders in the General Classification showed why they deserve to be on the podium in Paris on Sunday evening, with Vingegaard second, Pogacar third and Thomas fourth on the stage.

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Stage 20 at the 2022 Tour de France: How it unfolded

With all the focus on the top of the GC, and all three riders who started the day on the podium also more-than-competent against the clock – as we came to see, it would be easy to completely disregard the other 135 riders still left in this race.

But with a number of teams having failed to get a stage win this Tour, they would be pushing their best time-triallists to try and end that spell – and most of them had to know in advance that they would be disappointed.

After his huge turns in the mountains earlier in the week but then a notable absence from the business end more recently, Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) was clearly feeling good when he woke up this morning as he set an impressive early time of 50:22:25 which saw him occupy the hot seat before that time was beaten by a marauding Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), who came in with a time of 48:41.10.

When he crossed the line, it looked very much like Ganna may have had the stage win wrapped up but there were several riders who had other ideas.

Due to Tom Pidock’s spectacular ride up Alpe d’Huez and Geraint Thomas’s well won third place overall, Ineos Grenadiers's whole Tour wasn’t relying on Ganna’s ride today to count as a success, but they surely would have wanted to add to the team’s takeaways from a fast three weeks through Denmark and France.

After his surprise win on Stage 1 – surprising himself as much as anyone – Yves Lampaert (QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl) couldn’t repeat the feat. QuickStep's stage win count would surely have been higher with Mark Cavendish in their ranks, although today would obviously not have been a stage for the Manxman.

Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) would have wanted to put his terrible opening day TT behind him with a performance today, but an early bike change and then a chat with a Groupama-FDJ rider – who shared a sip of his bidon, which Bissegger's spare bike had been lacking – showed that the Swiss rider appeared to have lost all motivation. He rolled in a long way off the pace.

London's finest, Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), had another solid day on the bike including going through the first time check ahead of Ganna's time. He finished 50 seconds down on the world champion, but was third best at the time he finished. At some point in the next week or so the young Brit is going to realise just how well he's done at this year's Tour de France.

European champion Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) started well but faded throughout the course, crossing the line in provisional sixth but with many fast riders still out on the course or yet to start.

Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) did his Dutch national jersey justice with a very strong performance, after arguably a quiet Tour, but it wasn't enough for a stage win.

David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) rode a solid but steady TT to confirm his place in fourth overall. Behind Gaudu, Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) were sparring for fifth and sixth on the GC – until, that is, Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) came steaming through and pushed them further down the GC.

Meintjes was also overhauled by Romain Bardet (Team DSM), dropping two places on the day after a torrid time on his TT bike.

Once Vingegaard was off the start ramp, meaning all riders had started, and Van Aert was closing in on the finish line, it was a case of waiting to see if any of the GC favourites could take a final stage win before the sprint finish tomorrow – which Van Aert will probably win as well.

Tour de France 2022: Stage 20 results

1. Wout van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma, in 47:59.86 2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma, at 19 seconds 3. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 27 4. Geraint Thomas (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers, at 32 5. Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers, at 42 6. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo, at 1:22 7. Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl, at 1:25 8. Fred Wright (GBR) Bahrain Victorious, at 1:32 9. Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 1:37 10. Jan Tratnik (Slo) Bahrain Victorious, at 1:48

General classification after Stage 20

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma, in 76-33-57 2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 3-34 3. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, at 8-13 4. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, at 13-56 5. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 16-37 6. Nairo Quintana (Col) Arkea-Samsic, at 17-24 7. Romain Bardet (Fra) Team DSM, at 19-02 8. Louis Meintjes (RSA) Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert Matériaux, at 19-12 9. Aleksey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan, at 23-47 10. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers, at 25-43

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Jack Elton-Walters hails from the Isle of Wight, and would be quick to tell anyone that it's his favourite place to ride. He has covered a varied range of topics for Cycling Weekly , producing articles focusing on tech, professional racing and cycling culture. He moved on to work for Cyclist Magazine in 2017 where he stayed for four years until going freelance. He now returns to Cycling Weekly from time-to-time to cover racing, review cycling gear and write longer features for print and online.

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Home Team Wout Poels

• Place of Birth Venray
• Specialty climber, gc rider
• UCI Ranking 85

Your favourite race and climb?

My favourite race is Waalse Pijl and Angliru in Spain is my favourite climb.

Your best or most memorable result in pro cycling?

Liege-Bastogne-Liege and my victory there in 2016.

Who is your closest friend in the Pro Peloton? Any good stories to share?

I made a lot of friends last year in the team. It’s difficult to pick one, and I also don’t want to make any of them jealous to put ahead of someone 🙂

If you didn’t make it as a cyclist, what do you think you would be doing today?

Since I was 13 years old, I knew a wanted to become a professional bike rider. Maybe it was naive to think that at the age of 13, but hey here I am. I do have a Marketing Communication diploma so maybe I could help the marketing team ☺

What are your thoughts on the Merida Reacto you will be racing this season?

It is a fantastic bike! I used it at Tour de France and La Vuelta on the flat days. It is really a fast bike and I feel very comfortable on it. Maybe I should give it a try in a bunch sprint next year 🙂

Top Results in Last Five Seasons

La Vuelta Ciclista a España - Stage 20 16th September, 2023,

Tour de France - Stage 15 16th July, 2023,

Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol 20th February, 2022,

Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol - Stage 4 19th February, 2022,

Tour de France - Stage 2 (TTT) 7th July, 2019,

Critérium du Dauphiné - Stage 7 15th June, 2019,

Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta - Mountains classification 24th February, 2019,

Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta - Stage 2 21st February, 2019,

Santos Tour Down Under - Mountains classification 20th January, 2019,

Tour de Pologne - Stage 7 4th August, 2017,

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TOUR’23 Stage 15: Wout Wins – Tadej & Jonas Stuck Together!

Who is the best.

Tour Stage Report: Wout Poels took his first Grand Tour stage win and Bahrain Victorious’ second of this Tour, but the action was behind as Tadej Pogačar tried and failed to rid himself of Jonas Vingegaard before the finish line. It didn’t work and all is the same on GC.

The final kilometre of stage 15

Stage win for Wout Poels in his tenth Tour de France. The Dutchman won the tough Alpine stage to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc. On the final climb, the Dutchman dropped his fellow escapees Wout van Aert and Marc Soler.

Christian Prudhomme on stage 15: “At the end of a demanding weekend, the stage is set for a crucial battle between the contenders. This particularly undulating route through Haute-Savoie will take the riders over the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin, then to the Croix Fry and the Aravis passes. The most impactful blows will probably be delivered on the final climb to Le Bettex in the Amerands climb, where some sections touch 17% gradient.”

The second week of the Tour de France ended with another tough Alpine stage. The 179 kilometre stage, started in Les Gets les Portes du Soleil, with five categorised climbs: the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin (7.2km at 7.4%), the Col de la Croix Fry (11.4km at 7.1%), the Col des Aravis (4.4km at 6.2%), Côte des Amerands (2.7km at 10.9%) and the final climb to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc (7.7km at 7%). For sure Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar would be at each others throats again.

The first attacker of the day was Mathieu van der Poel, and just a little later it was Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen pulling the peloton to pieces. A leading group of 9 got together with: Van der Poel, Stefan Küng and Neilson Powless, the KOM. Lidl-Trek had only Stuyven in front group and so gave chase, helped by Cofidis. The gap was closed, after which Nils Politt took off on his own.

The German was joined by Julian Alaphilippe, Alexey Lutsenko and Aurélien Paret-Peintre. Although Paret-Peintre was dropped. Wout van Aert just made the crossing. A whole series of riders followed, including Van der Poel. Before they were well and truly away, Alaphilippe and Lutsenko had attacked. The two were together in the lead.

The difference between the leading duo, the pursuers and the peloton remained small, until there was a big crash in the peloton. Sepp Kuss was his by a spectator, who had his arm and phone over the fence. The American crashed and several riders went over him. These include Egan Bernal and Nathan Van Hooydonck. Everyone was eventually able to continue again, but because of the fall the peloton was stopped. The break got an 8 minute lead.

The group of chasers consisted of 36 riders. In addition to Van der Poel and Van Aert, Dylan Teuns and Wout Poels were also there, plus Powless, Giulio Ciccone, Thibaut Pinot, Michael Woods and Guillaume Martin were the bigger names. Martin was the best placed at the front. He was 12th before the start of the stage, almost 17 minutes behind leader Jonas Vingegaard.

At the foot of the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin, the 36 were 30 seconds behind Lutsenko and Alaphilippe, they took 10 seconds extra by the top of the climb. Alaphilippe struggled to follow Lutsenko uphill, but the two stayed together. Behind; Ciccone took the most points in the battle for the KOM jersey, ahead of Powless.

Chase group of 36: Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Omar Fraile (INEOS Grenadiers), Olivier Le Gac, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Andrey Amador, Magnus Cort, Neilson Powless, Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-EasyPost), Mikel Landa, Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Marco Haller, Nils Politt (BORA-hansgrohe), Giulio Ciccone, Mattias Skjelmose, Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek), Nans Peters (AG2R Citroën), Mathieu van der Poel, Søren Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Guillaume Martin, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Alex Aranburu (Movistar), Chris Hamilton (dsm-firmenich), Michael Woods, Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands, Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech), Lawson Craddock, Christopher Juul-Jensen, Luka Mezgec (Jayco AlUla), Warren Barguil, Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-Samsic), Jonas Abrahamsen, Torstein Træen (Uno-X) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies).

After the descent of the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin, the pursuers finally caught Lutsenko and Alaphilippe. There was now 37, as Nans Peters had been dropped. They started the Col de la Croix Fry (11.4km at 7.1%), just behind Marco Haller jumped away earlier and started the climb with 1 minute lead.

On the first ramps, Rui Costa dropped the pursuers. He crossed quickly to Haller and then immediately left the Austrian. Mattias Skjelmose put a lot of pressure on in the chase group. Van der Poel, Alaphilippe, Teuns and Powless were in trouble. Costa was caught by the Lidl-Trek rider’s acceleration. Ciccone then completed his teammate’s work by taking the KOM points on the Croix Fry, to draw level with Powless.

While Lidl-Trek took the initiative at the front of the race, it was Jumbo-Visma that set the pace in the peloton. Christophe Laporte and Dylan van Baarle rode on the front for many kilometres and ensured that the difference was reduced to 6 minutes when climbing the Col des Aravis (4.4km at 6.2%). There was an attack from Marc Soler in the lead group. The Spaniard from UAE Team Emirates made a good gap and crossed the summit first.

Van Aert jumped after the Spaniard, together with Neilands and Poels on the descent. Neilands crashed and it looked like he had been hit my a motorbike. He was able to continue, but the leading group was gone. Now there were three men left at the front.

On the descent towards the Côte des Amerands-Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, Poels and Van Aert put Soler under pressure. The Spaniard lost contact just before the valley and had to dig deep to get back to the two Wouts. He started the last climb of the day a few seconds behind. The chasing group was 1:30 down.

The Côte des Amerands (2.7km at 10.9%) had barely started when Poels jumped away from Van Aert. He immediately took a good lead. Soler and Van Aert were together, but half a minute behind at the foot of the final climb to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc (7.7km at 7%). That difference only increased.

It soon became clear that the stage victory would go to Poels. The Dutchman was the first to cross the line with a big lead and took a stage victory for the first time in his tenth Tour de France. Wout van Aert followed more than 2 minutes behind Poels for second place on the stage.

While Poels rode to victory, it was another race amongst the favourites. In the first metres of the Côte des Amerands, UAE Team Emirates took over from Jumbo-Visma, which had accelerated towards the climb. Most of the favourites were still together, but Carlos Rodríguez attacked on the descent. He started the final climb to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc with a small lead. As the road began to clear again, the INEOS Grenadiers leader was quickly caught by UAE Team Emirates men.

The pace of Tadej Pogačar’s riders ensured that one GC rider after another was dropped, until only Adam Yates, Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard were left. But in the last kilometres, Pogačar let his teammate Yates pull away. The two top men on GC stayed together and looked to be taking it easy on the climb, allowing Rodríguez to rejoin.

Pogačar settled onto Vingegaard’s wheel. At the start of the last kilometre, his attack came, but he was unable to get rid of Vingegaard. The two sprinted in the last meters, but were unable to pass each other. They crossed the line side by side. The difference between the two top favourites for the overall victory remains at 10 seconds.

Stage winner, Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious): “I really love this moment. I always dreamt of winning a stage in the Tour de France. Obviously, with Gino [Mäder’s death in June], it has a special meaning. It means a lot to win a stage in the Tour. It makes me super happy. I only started to believe in it in the final kilometres. I had to go full gas. It was amazing, amazing. Gino was helping me today. I thought I had the perfect approach to the Tour. I skipped the Dauphiné but I did pretty well at the Tour of Slovenia [9th] and the team took me to the Tour. They believed I could perform in the third week… and here I am. I really enjoyed my time with Team Sky. It was an incredible experience, but yet I never could fight for stage win. I could do it today and I’m very happy.”

2nd overall and best young rider, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “We took the final climb hard. I felt that Jonas was super good. I knew I could not drop him because the climb was too easy. I tried to improvise and let Adam [Yates] go so he could grab a few seconds for the GC. He is now closer to the podium, which is super nice. We can head into the third week with lots of confidence. We feel good, we have good legs. Today’s was a really good team performance. We have a rest day tomorrow, and yet another one for some of the guys on Tuesday. Let’s see after the rest day how to tackle these final decisive stages. As for the ITT, I know the route very well. I hope it suits me pretty well. It’s a very parcourse and can’t way to get started.”

Overall leader, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): “It has been yet another battle between the two of us. I guess it keeps getting better and better for the spectators! The team felt pretty good today, although we of course had this crash that affected some of my teammates. I hope everyone involved is well. Today I felt more in control than in previous days. We can be happy about the stage. I’d like to tell the spectators to enjoy the race and be there to cheer for us without standing on the road or pouring beers on us. Please, just enjoy the race. I’m happy there is a rest day coming. It will be very good for the legs. What will I do? Just chill and relax!”

# All the Tour de France news in EUROTRASH Monday. #

Tour de France Stage 15 Result: 1. Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain Victorious in 4:40:45 2. Wout van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma at 2:08 3. Mathieu Burgaudeau (Fra) TotalEnergies at 3:00 4. Lawson Craddock (USA) Jayco AlUla at 3:10 5. Mikel Landa (Spa) Bahrain Victorious at 3:14 6. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 7. Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis at 3:32 8. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek at 3:43 9. Simon Guglielmi (Fra) Arkéa Samsic at 3:59 10. Warren Barguil (Fra) Arkéa Samsic at 4:20.

Tour de France Overall After Stage 15: 1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma in 62:34:17 2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates at 0:10 3. Carlos Rodríguez (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 5:21 4. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Team Emirates at 5:40 5. Jai Hindley (Aus) BORA-hansgrohe at 6:38 6. Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma at 9:16 7. Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain Victorious at 10:11 8. Simon Yates (GB) Jayco AlUla at 10:48 9. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 14:07 10. Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis at 14:18.

Alastair Hamilton has been a pro team mechanic on the road, track and mountain bike and worked for the Great Britain team at the World championships in all disciplines. Since moving to Spain and finding out how to use a computer, he has gone from contributor of Daily Distractions at the 2002 Vuelta a España to editor at PezCyclingNews.

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The jerseys of the 2024 Tour de France

Details of the four iconic leader's jerseys and the minor prizes at the race

There are four Tour de France classification jerseys awarded after every stage of the three-week race, each recognising different successes and talents in the race.

The iconic yellow jersey is worn by the race leader based on time, the green jersey is awarded to the leader based on points awarded at intermediate sprints and the finishes, the red polka-dot king of the mountains jersey is based on points awarded on categorised climbs, while the white best young rider's jersey is another based on time, only reserved for riders born after January 1, 1998.

The team classification is also based on time, with the riders of the leading team racing with special yellow numbers (dossards). The most aggressive rider wears a special gold number during the following stage.

The most aggressive rider (super-combatif) of the whole race is selected by members of the jury at the end of the Tour de France and is awarded a trophy on the final podium in Paris just like the other competition winners.

Santini is the official jersey maker for the Tour de France, and will put the finishing touches - adding all necessary logos - to the winners' jerseys on-site at the Tour de France. That also means fans can buy their own replica jerseys and other Tour de France merchandising.

The yellow jersey – the maillot jaune   

The yellow jersey is worn by the leader of the general classification, the rider with the lowest net time in the race after every stage. The rider who takes it to Paris is crowned the Tour de France winner, the most prestigious success of the men’s cycling season. 

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) won the 2022 and 2023 Tour de France.

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The jersey is yellow because the newspaper that first organised the race, L'Auto , was printed on yellow paper.

The classification is based on the time taken for each rider to cover the 21 stages, taking into account time penalties and time bonuses. 

In the event of a tie in the general classification, the hundredths of a second recorded by the timekeepers during the individual time trial stages will be included in the total times in order to decide the overall winner. 

In the absence of a time trial or if the riders remain tied, then the positions in which they finished each stage will be added up and, as a last resort, their finishing position on the final stage will be taken into account.

Bonus seconds are offered to encourage attacking racing and these are deducted from the time taken to cover the stage. Bonuses of 10, 6, and 4 seconds are awarded on the finish line to the leading three riders on each stage, excluding time trials. There are also certain climbs with bonuses of 8, 5, and 2 seconds at the top such as the Jaizkibel on stage 2 which should encourage aggressive riding from the favourites.

All riders must finish within the time limit – a certain percentage (ranging from 104% to 120% depending on the stage and average speed) of the stage winner's time each day in order to continue in the race. This is often a problem for sprinters, domestiques and injured riders when it comes to the high mountains.

The green jersey – the maillot vert

The green jersey is worn by the leader of the points classification. Points are awarded at stage finishes and intermediate sprints.

While the sprinters are the main candidates for the green jersey, it's the more versatile among them who have the best chance of overall success in Paris. 

Peter Sagan is one such rider and has won green in seven of the past nine Tours, while Wout Van Aert dominated the points classification in 2022 to take his first green jersey. Jasper Philipsen won four sprint stages to anchor his green jersey in 2023.

Points are awarded to the first 15 riders at stage finishes or intermediate sprints, with different allocations depending on the nature of the stage. More points are awarded on flat stages than on mountain stages or time trials. The winner of a flat stage scores 50 points, a mountain stage winner just 20.

Only riders who complete the entire Tour de France are included in the points classification.

In the event where a rider or riders finish outside the time limit but are reinstated by the president of the commissaires’ jury, they will lose all points awarded to them in the points classification.            

For 2023 the green jersey was a much darker shade of green than fans are used to as per a request made by the sponsor of the jersey, Skoda but the colour was not popular with fans.                      

The polka-dot jersey – the maillot blanc à pois rouges

The polka-dot jersey is worn by the leader of the mountains classification, who is known as the 'king of the mountains.’ For the three recent editions of the Tour, the overall winner has also won the polka-dot jersey but Italy's Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek won the competition in 2023.

Mountain points are on offer at the top of every classified climb, ranging from the hardest – 'hors catégorie' – to the easiest – category 4.

Hors catégorie: 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-2

Category 1: 10-8-6-4-2-1

Category 2: 5-3-2-1

Category 3: 2-1

Category 4: 1

In the event of two riders being equal on points, the rider with the most first places at the summit of super-category passes or climbs or summit finishes will be declared the winner.

Only riders who complete the entire Tour de France will be included in the best climber classification. In the event of a rider or riders finishing outside the time limit but being reinstated by the president of the commissaires’ jury, they will lose all points awarded to them in the best climber classification.

The white jersey – the maillot blanc

The white jersey is worn by the leader of the youth classification. 

A 'young rider' is anyone who was born after January 1, 1998, so anyone under 25. The jersey goes to the best placed on general classification, based on time.

Tadej Pogačar has won the white jersey at the last four editions of the Tour, two of which he also won the yellow jersey. 

The white jersey often used to be an indication of future Tour de France contenders, but since Pogačar has risen to greatness at such a young age, it's been difficult to see the future contenders as obviously. He is now too old for competition, with the white jersey up for grabs in 2024.

The gold dossard 

The special gold number dossard is awarded to the rider deemed, subjectively, the ‘most combative’ the previous day. It is usually the rider most active in the breakaway or someone who shows panache and aggression or even qualities of sportsmanship. It used to be a red number, but has changed this year as Century 21 now sponsor the classification and the new colour runs in line with their branding.

The prize, which is awarded on every road stage except the final one, is decided by a jury presided over by the race director and a new vote made by members of the Tour de France Club. Each stage’s most aggressive rider wears a gold race dossard during the following stage.

The race’s most aggressive rider (super-combatif) is selected by members of the jury at the end of the Tour de France and was won by Wout Van Aert in 2022. This year Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) won the super-combatif award after a number of aggressive attacks on stages.

Yellow dossard

The yellow race number dossard is worn by members of the team leading the teams classification. It is calculated by adding together the times of each team's three best riders on every stage. 

Any team reduced to fewer than three riders will be eliminated from the team classification.

Wearing a leader’s jersey is mandatory from the signing-in protocol before the stage start until the post-stage press conference.

Skinsuits are provided to the leaders of the various rankings for time trial stages, with special fitting sessions arranged the day before the time trials.

Riders can lead multiple jersey classifications but only wear one jersey in the race. There is an established order of priority for the different leader’s jerseys: the yellow jersey, followed by the green jersey, then the red polka-dot jersey and finally the white jersey.

When a rider is leading several classifications, they wear the one designated by the order of priority. The other jerseys are then worn by the riders lying second, third or fourth in the corresponding classification.

Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters , Shift Active Media , and CyclingWeekly , among other publications.

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‘Liège-Bastogne-Liège changed my cycling life’ - Wout Poels takes new road to Monument via Tour of the Alps

Wout Poels will be one of a handful of former winners at this year’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, but the Bahrain Victorious rider is taking a new approach to the final Classic of the spring.

The Dutchman has taken inspiration from teammate and podium-finisher in 2023, Santiago Buitrago, by completing five days of preparation for Liège-Bastogne-Liège at the Tour of the Alps before taking on Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

The now-veteran, 36-year-old Poels will make his 11th start at La Doyenne on Sunday, eight years after he took the biggest win of his career in a reduced-group sprint ahead of Michael Albasini and Rui Costa while riding for Team Sky.

He has often completed the Ardennes races as a trio of races but after his Colombian teammate found great form with third in 2023 after racing in South Tyrol and Trentino, Poels has opted to follow suit.

He has not taken a top 10 at Liège-Bastogne-Liège since 2019 but hopes that will change on Sunday, after flying to Belgium from Italy after the Tour of the Alps ends on Friday. 

“I hope it's a good prep but it's all gonna be very tight and it's a little bit of a gamble for myself but we will see. Last year it worked pretty well with Santi [Buitrago] so hopefully, it will work well for me also,” Poels told Cyclingnews.

“It’s always nice to go back, Liège-Bastogne-Liège changed my cycling life of course.” 

Poels’ only Monument triumph came amid his stint as one of the super domestiques at Team Sky who worked tirelessly to help Chris Froome take four Tour de France titles. 

Pinned to his Instagram page is the post from that day in 2016 with the caption “So this was really not a dream…”

It will of course be a tough ask to beat the modern-day superstars of professional cycling but Poels knows just what it takes on those brutally long days in the saddle.

Despite riding a tough wet stage in Austria on Wednesday, Poels joked he wasn’t too eager to get back to racing in Wallonia after seeing the hellishly cold conditions that saw only 44 men finish Flèche Wallonne.

“To win a Monument is really nice to have behind your name so for sure that race is always pretty special,” Poels said.

“But hopefully, the weather is better than Wednesday in Fleche, it was looking really cold.”

If Buitrago’s performance from last year is anything to go off, Poels is well on track to perform at Liège. The Colombian was eighth overall at the Tour of the Alps in 2023 while the Dutchman currently sits equal-third, 48 seconds off the lead of Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek) after the Spaniard won stage 3.

He’s also been working for young Italian Antonio Tiberi, with his teammate also 48 seconds off the lead. They’ll have one more chance on Friday to try to snatch the overall victory.

After racing Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Poels will begin his final preparations for the Giro d’Italia, where he will be chasing a stage win to complete the illustrious Grand Tour set after his breakaway successes from the Tour de France and Vuelta a España in 2023. 

Poels took two of the finest breakaway wins of the season in 2023, beating Belgian superstars Wout van Aert (Visam-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) on the summit finish to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc at the Tour de France and then the reduced-group sprint to Guadarrama at the Vuelta a España.

He’s a changed rider after swapping his domestique role at Team Sky to follow his own ambitions at Bahrain-Victorious in 2019, but it wasn’t an immediate transition into winning for the Dutchman with a three-year win-drought only coming to an end at the Ruta del Sol in 2022.

“Last year was amazing of course with the Tour and the Vuelta and that was a little bit of the reason why I changed teams,” Poels admitted. 

“It took four years to achieve that but it's super nice to have. Of course this year the big goal is going to be at the Giro to have a stage in all three Grand Tours and I think we’re really good on track for that.”