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Teams & Riders Official Wout Van Aert thread

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It's all a little diffuse to me.

A big part of Boonen's potential consisted of the fact that his only really fearsome adversary was Cancellara. He (Boonen) broke through in 2005 where Museeuw had just stopped his career, PVP was getting old (he was still good, but not at his previous level) and Discovery Channel were riding stupidly in the monuments. Cancellara was not there yet, and Flecha was hardly at the level of, say, Greg Van Avermaet anno 2020.

Put Boonen in today's peloton and he wouldn't dominate like he did back then. Van Aert has the potential to do so, I think. Until Mathieu comes and is double the level of Wout ;)
 
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Imagine talking about weak competition in past years in a post COVID year when much of the peloton isn't quite up to snuff yet.

He's great right now. Doesn't immediately have to win he'll win everything the next 10 years or that he's immediately the best thing that's happened to cycling in 20 years.
 
Imagine talking about weak competition in past years in a post COVID year when much of the peloton isn't quite up to snuff yet.

He's great right now. Doesn't immediately have to win he'll win everything the next 10 years or that he's immediately the best thing that's happened to cycling in 20 years.

20? I'm thinking like a hundred years!

Maybe since the invention of the bike.
 
It's all a little diffuse to me.

A big part of Boonen's potential consisted of the fact that his only really fearsome adversary was Cancellara. He (Boonen) broke through in 2005 where Museeuw had just stopped his career, PVP was getting old (he was still good, but not at his previous level) and Discovery Channel were riding stupidly in the monuments. Cancellara was not there yet, and Flecha was hardly at the level of, say, Greg Van Avermaet anno 2020.

Put Boonen in today's peloton and he wouldn't dominate like he did back then. Van Aert has the potential to do so, I think. Until Mathieu comes and is double the level of Wout ;)
You think Bettiol and Gilbert are stiffer competition than what Boonen had?!
 
This.

Nobody will deny Van Aert is a better climber than Boonen. What is it gonna buy him? I think apart from the option being on the offensive on the Poggio and competing in Strade, I don't think it buys him that many races.
I will give you one example: Today's stage.
(Or the one in the Dauphiné, or the ITT in last year's Dauphiné...)

EDIT: Come to think of it, of the last 5 victories of van Aert, Boonen would not have won 4: Strade, Milan San Remo, stage in the Dauphiné, 2nd stage in the Tour. That's 80%, lol.
I'd also like to see how many sprints Boonen would have won, had he been instructed to keep his GC leader out of the wind, the entire day. Van Aert is here, to work for the team and "casually" wins two stages. While Boonen won 6 stages in his entire career, and had the team working for him, not the other way around.
 
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I don't remember how hard EBH would go on Tour cols, but I don't think he led groups this small at this stage of the race did he? Thought that was Mick Rogers.

Kwaito I've definitely seen in charge of smaller groups but then Kwiato is a more lighweight rider.
 
I don't remember how hard EBH would go on Tour cols, but I don't think he led groups this small at this stage of the race did he? Thought that was Mick Rogers.

Kwaito I've definitely seen in charge of smaller groups but then Kwiato is a more lighweight rider.
If my memory isn't failing me EBH used to drag the early Sky trains on the flats pretty much single-handedly for miles and miles and miles. I remember tuning into stages and without fail EBH would be at the front of the peloton hauling ass until the road got steep enough for Mick Rogers to take over, so his job was more like the one Panzer and Grøndahl Jansen are doing for JV at the moment.
 
It's all a little diffuse to me.

A big part of Boonen's potential consisted of the fact that his only really fearsome adversary was Cancellara. He (Boonen) broke through in 2005 where Museeuw had just stopped his career, PVP was getting old (he was still good, but not at his previous level) and Discovery Channel were riding stupidly in the monuments. Cancellara was not there yet, and Flecha was hardly at the level of, say, Greg Van Avermaet anno 2020.

Put Boonen in today's peloton and he wouldn't dominate like he did back then. Van Aert has the potential to do so, I think. Until Mathieu comes and is double the level of Wout ;)

I find it funny how people always point out the weak competition that Boonen had. At least those guys did not get their teeth kicked in twice by an elderly Gilbert (RVV 2017, PR 2019). A Gilbert, mind you, that could not get an inch closer to Boonen in RVV 2010. So I wonder who it is that is so very strong at the moment? Van Aert and Van Der Poel very well might be. But then it is just Boonen and Cancellara all over again.
 

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