Cyclist of the Week: Danny van Poppel (+ video)

A lot of you were so taken with the story last week of the novice cyclist who managed to join in with the bike leg of a triathlon by mistake, and kept pedalling for 21 kilometres that we’ve decided to launch a new feature – Cyclist of the Week – to recognise someone whose feats on two wheels have grabbed our attention in the past seven days.

> Novice cyclist mum swept up by Triathlon race rides 21 km route

For this week’s recipient, we head to the Tour de Suisse and Team Sky sprinter Danny van Poppel’s extraordinary save in the sprint at the end of Stage 4 with a superb display of bike handling, almost doing the splits to avoid crashing into the barriers as he comes off a bend.

For his troubles, the young Dutch rider was relegated to last place on the stage for dangerous sprinting – although many pointed out that 150 metres from the line is no place to have a 90 degree turn.

His fellow pros have overwhelmingly backed him, with riders’ association the CPA revealing today that 91 per cent of its members who responded to a poll on the issue believed that the design of the finish was dangerous.