"I think the real racing is about to begin."

These were the words of Mathieu van der Pol the day before the Tour de France hit the Paris-Roubaix cobbles on Wednesday.

The Dutchman was looking ahead to the fourth stage on the north coast of France, as well as the second and third stages in Denmark, to give his teammate, sprinter Jasper Philipsen, a chance.

Alpecin Deceuninck missed out on a stage win, but instead Philipsen was the lone attacker, finishing second, eight seconds behind race leader Wout Van Aert. The team's attention will now turn to the star of stage 5, the 157 km from Lille to Arenberg.

Speaking in Dunkerque before stage 4, Van der Pol said that after a "rest day" to France on Monday, the peloton would begin to get real nervous.

"It was a quiet few days in Denmark, but the course in the wind was not a race situation to do anything. But I think after today I will be really nervous. I also think we have a good chance as a team."

"Actually not so much," was his answer to a question about his preparation for stage 5, where he is one of the favorites to win along with longtime rival Wout Van Aert, Paris-Roubaix winner Dylan Van Baarle, and Trek-Segafredo's Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven. His answer to a question about his preparation for the fifth stage, in which he was one of the favorites to win along with Mads Pedersen and Yasper Stuyven.

"It's a really small Paris-Roubaix. There aren't that many sections, but every time you go into a section, you're going to be more nervous than the section itself.

"I think I'll be really nervous. As long as we stay out of trouble and don't have mechanical problems, I think we can already go far."

While Paris-Roubaix and other cobbled classics in April are day-long races and suited to pure specialists, the Tour's cobbled stages are a different story.

Here, riders such as Tadei Pogachar, Alexandre Vlasov, and Ben O'Connor are thrown into the mix, and classics away from the overall class, such as Alpecin Desseuninck, Trek-Segafredo, and Quick Step-Alfavinir along with more teams will be competing for the lead in the peloton.

"This is the difficult part of the Tour and other Grand Tours," van der Pol said. 'It gets really tense and hectic because the GC riders also want to be at the front. In the end you're fighting for the stage win, but they could lose a lot more.

"Of course, that's a question you can ask yourself, 'What's the best way to go about it? 'But maybe that's just part of being a complete rider. But I don't know. But I don't know.

Van der Pol and his Alpecin-Deceuninck team will not have to worry about the overall contenders on Wednesday. He will, however, be aiming for yellow. The Tour de Flanders champion is currently in fifth place, 38 seconds off Van Aert's lead after the Belgian's courageous solo victory. That could all change on the cobbles.

"I think we certainly have a chance. But as I said before, I think the guys within a minute of Van Aert still have a shot at the yellow jersey, and for me, a stage win is what I was aiming for, so it's not going to be easy."

"Of course, I need to find my good legs. I want to find it this week. For me, the preparation after the last Grand Tour and after this Grand Tour was unknown, so it's a question mark for me too. I hope they come back."