# Wout Poels

Wouter Lambertus Martinus Henricus Poels (born 1 October 1987) is a Dutch professional road bicycle racer, who rides for UCI WorldTeam XDS Astana Team.

## Career

Poels was born in Venray. He almost lost a kidney after a massive crash on the sixth stage of the 2012 Tour de France.
After competing with the Vacansoleil–DCM squad since 2009, Poels moved to the Omega Pharma–Quick-Step squad for the 2014 season.

### Team Sky (2015–19)

In September 2014, Team Sky announced that Poels would join them from 1 January 2015. His first win for the team came in the 2015 Tirreno–Adriatico, where he led the team following the withdrawal of Chris Froome. Poels won stage 4 into Castelraimondo with an attack on the final climb and a solo descent to the finish line. He moved into the lead of the race and went on to finish seventh in the overall standings. He later finished second overall at the Tour of Britain, winning the toughest mountain stage with an uphill finish on Hartside Fell.
In 2016, Poels won his first one-day race after sprinting to victory from a four-man group in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. It was the first monument for Team Sky and for Poels himself.

### Bahrain–McLaren (2020–present)

In September 2019, Poels announced that he was joining the Bahrain–Merida team, later renamed as Bahrain–McLaren, for the 2020 season. In his first season with the team, Poels finished sixth overall at the Vuelta a España. The following year, he held the polka-dot jersey for four days at the 2021 Tour de France, and recorded his best finish at the race to that point – sixteenth overall. In 2022, Poels won the penultimate stage and the general classification at the Vuelta a Andalucía, his first overall stage race win since 2016. Poels then won his first Tour de France stage in 2023; having been part of a large breakaway on stage fifteen, Poels and three other riders went clear following the Col des Aravis, with Poels soloing away on the final climb towards Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and he ultimately won the stage by more than two minutes.

## Major results

Source:

### 2007

    10th Overall Vuelta a Extremadura
       1st Mountains classification

### 2008

    1st Overall Vuelta Ciclista a León
    3rd Overall Volta a Lleida
    3rd Rund um Düren
    9th Overall Circuit des Ardennes

### 2010 (2 pro wins)

    1st Stage 4 Tour of Britain
    2nd Overall Tour de l'Ain
       1st Stage 4
    8th Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes
    9th Eschborn–Frankfurt City Loop

### 2011 (1)

    1st Stage 15 Vuelta a España
    2nd Overall Tour de l'Ain
       1st Stage 3
    3rd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
       1st Young rider classification
    3rd Overall Vuelta a Murcia
    4th Overall Tour de Pologne

### 2012 (1)

    2nd Overall Tour de Luxembourg
       1st Young rider classification
       1st Stage 3
    3rd Overall Vuelta a Murcia
    8th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
       1st Young rider classification

### 2013 (1)

    7th Amstel Curaçao Race
    8th Overall Tour de l'Ain
       1st Stage 4
    9th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
    10th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

### 2014 (1)

    1st Stage 1 (TTT) Tirreno–Adriatico
    9th Strade Bianche
    10th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
       1st Stage 4

### 2015 (2)

    2nd Overall Tour of Britain
       1st Stage 5
    3rd Overall Abu Dhabi Tour
    5th Milano–Torino
    7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
       1st Stage 4
    8th Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes
    8th GP Ouest-France

### 2016 (6)

    1st Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
       1st Points classification
       1st Mountains classification
       1st Stages 1 (ITT) & 4
    1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    1st Stage 5 Volta a Catalunya
    1st Stage 6 Tour of Britain
    4th La Flèche Wallonne
    7th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía

### 2017 (1)

    3rd Overall Tour de Pologne
       1st Stage 7
    4th Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
    4th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
    6th Overall Vuelta a España
    6th Milano–Torino
    7th Overall Tour of Guangxi

### 2018 (3)

    1st Stage 4 (ITT) Paris–Nice
    2nd Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
       1st Points classification
       1st Stage 2
    2nd Overall Tour of Britain
       1st Stage 6

### 2019 (1)

    3rd Overall Tour Down Under
    3rd Overall Volta ao Algarve
    4th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné
       1st Stage 7
    7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
    10th Liège–Bastogne–Liège

### 2020

    6th Overall Vuelta a España
    6th Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
    Combativity award Stage 5 Tour de France

### 2021

    4th Overall Tour de la Provence
    Tour de France
       Held after Stages 8 & 15–17
       Combativity award Stage 8

### 2022 (2)

    1st Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
       1st Stage 4

### 2023 (2)

    1st Stage 15 Tour de France
    1st Stage 20 Vuelta a España
    6th Overall UAE Tour
    9th Overall Tour of Slovenia

### 2024 (1)

    3rd Overall Tour de Hongrie
       1st Stage 5
    6th Overall Tour of the Alps

### 2025

    7th Overall Tour of Oman

### General classification results timeline

Grand Tour general classification results :
| Grand Tour | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | 21 | — | — | — | 12 | — | — | — | 34 | — | — |
| Tour de France | DNF | DNF | 28 | — | 44 | 28 | — | 58 | 26 | 110 | 16 | — | 27 | 43 |
| Vuelta a España | 17 | — | DNF | 38 | — | — | 6 | — | 34 | 6 | 23 | DNF | 15 | |
| Major stage race general classification results |||||||||||||||
| Stage races | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Paris–Nice | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | 15 | 27 | — |
| Tirreno–Adriatico | 18 | 8 | 10 | 38 | 7 | 14 | — | — | 7 | — | — | — | — | 11 |
| Volta a Catalunya | — | — | — | — | 24 | 34 | — | — | — | NH | 79 | DNF | 29 | 11 |
| Tour of the Basque Country | 39 | 17 | 9 | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | NH | — | — | — | — |
| Tour de Romandie | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | — | — | — | NH | — | — | — | — |
| Critérium du Dauphiné | — | — | 57 | — | 39 | 25 | — | — | 4 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tour de Suisse | 25 | 15 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | NH | 31 | — | — | 16 |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |
| NH | Not held |
| IP | In progress |