After competing with the Vacansoleil–DCM[6] squad since 2009, Poels moved to the Omega Pharma–Quick-Step squad for the 2014 season.[7]
Team Sky (2015–19)
In September 2014, Team Sky announced that Poels would join them from 1 January 2015.[8] 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.[9][10] 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.[11][12]
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.[3] In his first season with the team, Poels finished sixth overall at the Vuelta a España.[13] 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,[14][15] his first overall stage race win since 2016.[16] 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.[17][18]
^Puddicombe, Stephen (9 November 2020). "Vuelta a España 2020 ratings: how did each team perform?". Cycling Weekly. Future plc. Retrieved 23 August 2023. After losing time on both the opening two stages in the Basque Country, Wout Poels slowly but surely climbed up the rankings, eventually reaching sixth by the end of the second week and remaining there until Madrid.
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