Ten Dam thinks Van der Poel should skip the Tour: "Maybe Mathieu wants to try something new"

The 2025 Tour de France includes plenty of hilly stages, especially in the opening week, but unfortunately, there's no stage featuring gravel or cobblestones. "That would really have been a stage for him," Ten Dam said. Van der Poel previously hinted that he might opt for a summer on the mountain bike instead. "There’s just not much in it for him in this Tour, so I understand why he’s saying, 'I don’t know, I’ve done it twice already.' He’s pulled eighteen sprints for Jasper Philipsen. If he really wants to become world champion in mountain biking, then he doesn’t necessarily have to go to the Tour."

Last summer, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider did ride in the Tour, mainly as preparation for the Paris Olympics. "He went to the Tour for that." With an Olympic-free summer ahead, Ten Dam thinks Van der Poel might choose something different. "He’s also done the World Championships and became the gravel world champion. He’s raced so much on the road, and the playful Mathieu might just want to try something new."

Besides Van der Poel's summer plans, Ten Dam had a lot to say about the saga surrounding Tom Pidcock, who, after plenty of back-and-forth, appears to be staying with INEOS Grenadiers. The former rider finds it somewhat puzzling. "He has his own little kingdom within the team, with Kurt Bogaerts as his personal trainer and confidant, his own mechanic always with him, his own doctor... This year, Pidcock even said, 'I feel like the team is holding me back.' He was looking for something outside of himself, blaming the team. It’s a mess on all sides."

It seemed like a recipe for a quick departure from the British team, but the two-time Olympic champion isn’t going anywhere, it seems. "I don’t know what happened. But, yeah, four million pounds, five million euros... I don’t think Tom Pidcock is going to say, 'well, I’ll go ride around for half of that at Q36.5.'" Ten Dam also questioned INEOS’s transfer strategy. "Last year, I texted Aike (Visbeek, team director of Wanty-Intermarché, ed.) a few times, and he said, 'what is INEOS doing with their transfer policy?' He didn’t understand it. He already saw last December that it looked like it was imploding."