Brothers Danny and Boy van Poppel come from a cycling family through and through, with their father, Jean-Paul van Poppel, a former Tour green jersey winner

Interview Sophie Hurcom Images Cor Vos

How’s the Tour going for you both now we’re at the second rest day?

Danny: For me, it’s going well. The first weeks were not so good to sprint, but I’m feeling better. I’m suffering like all the sprinters but I’m feeling better and better. The last sprint I was fifth, and two more sprints to come and I’m looking forward to it.

Boy: The first stages were, of course, really hectic, like everybody saw, with a lot of crashes. At the moment it’s going a bit more relaxed, not so many crashes but still racing really fast and like Danny said, for the sprinters it’s suffering on the climbs and hoping to make it to another flat stage.

You’re both back at the Tour for the first time in a long time. Danny you were last here in 2014 and Boy in 2013. What’s it been like to be back at the Tour after such a period away from the race?

Danny: I have already been riding for eight, nine years a pro, and I know a lot of races. But the Tour was the first time I was really like a junior again before the race.I didn’t know what to expect, I’ve done the Giro, Vuelta... I did the Tour twice but I didn’t finish it.So the goal for me was to really finish this Tour, and I’m on a good path. It’s a really nervous race. I know the Giro and Vuelta are really different. Especially the first week is really nervous and it’s not so fun for the riders.But everybody is doing the same job and the next day we go on.That’s what I can see.

Boy: This was a dream for us both to come back again to the Tour de France, it’s the biggest cycling event in the world. Of course, a lot of people back home are following us and you want to show yourself, so it’s really nice to be back.

Aged 19, Danny makes his Tour debut in 2013 in the prologue in Corsica

Image: John Berry/Getty Images.

14 STAGE

SATURDAY JULY 10 Carcassonne > Quillan 183.7KM

Some of this year’s big breakaways have been categorised by the number of riders in them who with a little bit more talent, or luck, could have been general classification leaders for their team. Whether this is because of the strength in depth of this year’s peloton or the emergence of younger talent is an unanswered question.

Bauke Mollema is one of those riders, having finished sixth on GC at the Tour in the past, and third at the Vuelta too, but he has never quite cracked it and, at 34, the battle for the overall appears to be behind him. His talent is not up for debate, however, and his victory on stage 14 of this year’s Tour was taken in the typical style of the Dutchman, in a similar fashion to how he won Il Lombardia in 2019 and his only previous Tour stage win in 2017. Mollema might have only won 17 races in his 14 years in the pro peloton, but he has habit of picking up big wins.

His attack from 41km out should have been expected by his breakaway companions, and covered. Once he was away, though, he stayed away, his diesel engine powering away over the medium mountains.Mollema knows that he does not have the kick to approach the finish line in any size of group confident of victory. His move was timed to perfection, and the break never saw him again.