Van der Poel reached "maximum speed" but reaps no rewards: "I told Jasper before the Tour"

On Thursday, Mathieu van der Poel appeared to set up his sprinter Jasper Philipsen — who was eventually relegated for hindering Wout van Aert — for victory in Dijon, but in the end there was no reason for Alpecin-Deceuninck to celebrate. The world champion from the Netherlands is confident that a successful day is still ahead for his team.

Van der Poel pushed hard up to about two hundred meters from the finish but saw Philipsen loose the stage to Dylan Groenewegen. "I think everything in the lead-up to the sprint went almost perfectly. Yesterday I was still struggling before it all started. My legs failed. Now, I had that punch at the end," he observed.

"I was at full speed 200 meters from the finish. That’s how Jasper prefers it," said the Dutchman in his post-race analysis. "As a team, we did a perfect job, it’s just a shame Jasper got beat in the end. He's getting closer and closer though. We keep pushing," he told Sporza, clearly not lacking motivation.

Van der Poel had already warned Philipsen not to expect constant stage wins

Speaking to NOS, he shared a similar analysis. "I haven’t seen the sprint yet, but it’s a pity. There are still opportunities though. Personally, I'm satisfied that I had a good lead-out in my legs. My legs felt a lot better, I'm happy about that. The fact that it just didn't work out, that's cycling. It will come, Jasper also has to keep believing in it. I already told him before the Tour, you’re not going to win four stages every time."

Next up, there is a time trial before Van der Poel and Philipsen are free to race again on Saturday. "I feel that Jasper is also getting better, as he has suffered quite a bit with the heat."