Van der Poel: I'm a shadow of myself at the moment

Tour de France 2022 109th Edition 5th stageLille Wallers Arenberg 157 km 06072022 Mathieu Van Der Poel NED Alpecin Fenix photo Nico VereeckenPNSprintCyclingAgency2022
Dust and dirt cover Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) from 157km on stage 5 and 11 sectors of cobbles (Image credit: Nico Vereecken PN SprintCyclingAgency)

Outside the GC showdown on the cobbles, Wednesday's fifth stage of the Tour de France was also set to bring that rare opportunity to see the Classics stars do battle outside of their usual spring domain.

The likes of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) were expected to do battle on the 157 kilometres from Lille to Arenberg, but things didn't quite play out that way. On the day, Van der Poel was dropped from the lead group 38km from the finish, while Van Aert was called into action to help his GC leader Jonas Vingegaard.

Dani Ostanek
Senior News Writer

Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, joining in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, they had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur.

Dani has reported from the world's top races, including the Tour de France, Road World Championships, and the spring Classics. They have interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars, including Mathieu van der Poel, Demi Vollering, and Remco Evenepoel. Their favourite races are the Giro d'Italia, Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix.

Season highlights from the 2024 season include reporting from Paris-Roubaix –  'Unless I'm in an ambulance, I'm finishing this race' – Cyrus Monk, the last man home at Paris-Roubaix – and the Tour de France – 'Disbelief', gratitude, and family – Mark Cavendish celebrates a record-breaking Tour de France sprint win.