Some stories are sorely repeated. Mathieu Van der Poel, winner of the second stage in Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) and yellow jersey for four days, prematurely abandons the Tour de France 2025, announced his team, Tuesday July 22. At the attack almost every day, and again in the fight for the green jersey, “MVDP” was one of the great animators of this edition.
As in 2021, when he had settled down to prepare the Tokyo Olympics, and in 2022, where he was unrecognizable on his bike, the triple winner of the Tour des Flandres and Paris-Roubaix threw the sponge before the arrival of the Grande Boucle in Paris. His training, Alpecin-Deceuninck, said in a statement that the Dutchman, who ” presented symptoms of a classic cold for a few days, “ suffers from pneumonia.
His condition suddenly worsened on Monday afternoon, a day of rest of the peloton, leading to his transfer to the Narbonne hospital center (Aude) in the evening. Additional examinations then revealed the inflammation of the lungs. “” Mathieu will have to observe a rest period of at least a full week. At the end of this, new medical examinations will be carried out to assess his healing and determine the next steps in his rehabilitation ”continues the press release.
Mathieu van der Poel, 30 years old, was no longer a candidate for the general classification – he pointed, before his abandonment on Tuesday at 41e Rank, more than an hour and a half from Tadej Pogacar. But the Dutchman was still aiming for a victory during the last stage, with a visit to Montmartre tailor-made for his qualities as a puncture-scoring. Tuesday, July 15, he was declared the most combative runner of the first ten days of the Tour de France.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck team undergoes its second major start after the abandonment on the fall of Jasper Philipsen, also carrying the yellow jersey and stage winner at the start of the round.