A stage winner in Boulogne-sur-Mer and twice a yellow jersey wearer, Mathieu van der Poel now has another award to go with his list of achievements during the 2025 Tour de France – that of the most combative rider of the first 10 days.
The Tour took a break on Tuesday for its first rest day following a trip through the Massif Central on Bastille Day, and organisers held a fan vote on social media where the combativity award for the race's 'first week' would be determined.
Alpecin-Deceuninck leader Van der Poel went up against race leader and stage 6 winner Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) as well as Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Michael Storer (Tudor), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), and Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) in the vote.
All barring Castrillo had been out in the break at least twice during the opening 10 days of the Tour, with Armirail getting out in front on three days – stages 1, 2, and 10. But Van der Poel was the runaway winner, racking up over 1,000 retweets, well ahead of Healy and Simmons in second and third places.
The Dutchman has enjoyed an action-packed opening 10 days to his Tour, beginning with leading out Jasper Philipsen for the opening day stage win and yellow jersey in Lille. He then followed that up with a win and ride into yellow of his own on stage 2, beating Tadej Pogačar to the line in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Van der Poel held onto the race lead for three more days and came close to adding a second stage win to his haul in Rouen as Pogačar outpaced him to the line. He was level on time with the Slovenian heading into the stage 5 time trial, where he'd finally give up the race lead.
However, a day later, the former world champion was out in the breakaway for the first time. He finished 3:58 down on stage winner Healy on a hard, hilly day to Vire Normandie, but he managed to regain yellow by another razor-thin margin as Pogačar crossed the line a second too late to keep the lead.
Three days later, he was back at it, heading out in a seemingly hopeless two-man breakaway with teammate Jonas Rickaert on the pan-flat stage 9 to Châteauroux. It was a day for the sprinters, but Van der Poel later said the idea behind the break was for Rickaert to realise his career-long dream of stepping onto a Tour de France podium.
The Belgian did just that, winning the day's combativity prize before being caught 6.5km from the line. Van der Poel continued, holding off the peloton well into the final kilometre before he too was brought back just 700 metres from the finish.
That second stage win wasn't to be, though there could be further opportunity in the hills around Toulouse on Wednesday's stage 11, while the Tour's final day trip up Montmartre in Paris is suited to Classics-style racing.
🗳 The most combative rider of the first 10 days has been elected! 🇳🇱 @mathieuvdpoel wins with 961 RT.💪 He’ll be part of the list for the most combative rider of the #TDF2025.🗳 Le vote pour le combatif intermédiaire des 10 premiers jours du #TDF2025 est terminé et c'est 🇳🇱… https://t.co/tCoiCPhL2l pic.twitter.com/AA9YDvf9JxJuly 15, 2025
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