Tour de France: Gamble pays off for emotional Mathieu van der Poel with historic win and yellow jersey

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix)
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) took the Tour de France by the scruff of the neck on stage 2 with a thrilling or all-nothing ride that netted him both the stage win and the yellow jersey in dramatic fashion. And in a sign of both love and respect, he pointed to the sky as he crossed the line to remember his late grandfather and cycling legend Raymond Poulidor.

Coming into the stage, Van der Poel sat 18 seconds off Julian Alaphilippe’s (Deceuninck-QuickStep) race lead but the Alpecin-Fenix rider made the incredibly bold move of attacking on the first ascent of the Mûr-de-Bretagne in order to hunt down bonus seconds.

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Daniel Benson

Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.