Mathieu van der Pol is having trouble explaining his poor showing at the Tour de France, but thinks things may have gone wrong in the weeks between the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. [The Dutchman believes that the weeks between the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France, especially the high-altitude training camps, were problematic.

Van der Pol had a great Giro debut, winning the opening stage, wearing the pink jersey, forming a breakaway group, and finishing the three-week race for the first time in his career.

In 2022, his mountain biking ambitions were put on the back burner and Van der Pol decided to double up in the Grand Tour for the first time. But there was no sign of the man who had wowed the opening week of the Tour with his Grand Tour debut 12 months earlier.

He failed to challenge seriously in the opening time trial, and although he assisted Jasper Philipsen in the sprint that followed, he fell early in the cobbled fifth stage.

He then spent the first week behind the peloton before leaving the race on stage 12 after failing to improve in the Alps.

"I think something went wrong, especially in the high-altitude training camp for the Tour after the Giro," Van der Pol said at a post-Tour criterium in the Netherlands this week, according to NOS.

"I didn't feel completely empty from the Giro. But my body still hadn't recovered and I didn't recover well enough at altitude."

Van der Pol said.

Van der Pol traveled to Italy to resume training on June 7, a week after the Giro. He stayed there until June 21, when he returned to his home in Belgium before the start of the Tour in Copenhagen on July 1.

"If I train at altitude after the Grand Tour, I may need to recover more than I think I will.

"I'm not 100 percent sure, but I feel like there's a connection.

Van der Pol is now looking ahead to the rest of the season, using the lucrative post-Tour criterium circuit as a light way to begin laying the groundwork for the months ahead.

His race schedule has not yet been finalized, but will be built around the World Championships in Australia in September, with road races on the moderately hilly Wollongong circuit.

He will miss the European Championships in Munich in August, but is likely to tune up for the World Championships at either the Tour of Britain or the Canadian World Tour one-day races in Quebec and Montreal in early September.

"I want to be my best in Australia," van der Pol said.