Tour stage win 'not from my toes', says Van der Poel / Photo: Anne-Christine POUJOULAT - AFP
Tour stage win 'not from my toes', says Van der Poel
Mathieu van der Poel achieved a career dream by winning the final stage of the Tour de France on the famous Champs Elysees avenue in Paris on Sunday.
The cobbled classics specialist escaped with Tadej Pogacar, who claimed a record-equalling fifth overall Tour victory, on the Montmartre climb that was heaving with ecstatic fans.
Both committed fully to the charge to the line for 10km as a group of sprinters just seconds behind inched closer to them.
In the final 700 metres, Van der Poel surged out alone and he narrowly held off the pack in a photo-finish.
The 31-year-old Dutchman admitted that he thought the chasers would catch him before the line.
In the end, it was his Alpecin Premier Tech team-mate Jasper Philipsen who came closest to pipping him to the line.
"I thought we were going to get caught back, but then I was just thinking about this moment, and I just put my head down in the last 500 metres," he said.
"I just went as hard as I could, and I was just waiting until a wheel was coming past, and it didn't happen, it didn't happen.
"In the very end, I see a Pirelli tyre next to me, and it's the one from Jasper.
"It just shows that we never give up. Maybe the start of our Tour was not good, but I won the Tour des Champs Elysees. I think it's pretty good."
Van der Poel said he did not know how he had found the strength to hold on.
"If there was one race I still wanted to win in my career, I have a few, of course, but this was one of them," he said.
"We have a saying in Dutch that it has to come from your toes.
"I don't know where this came from, but not from my toes!"
H.Dierckx--JdB
