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Teams & Riders Official Wout Van Aert thread

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Of course Sagan is a legend of the sport, are you guys freaking kidding me? By far the best and most consistent rider in the world from 2011 to 2017,...
I guess you misspelled Cancellara where you wrote Sagan?

There are some riders, in the last 10 or 20 years, that the competition was genuinely afraid of. Cancellara ofcourse, but Sagan as well, especially in his prime (e.g. Flanders 2016), and Froome (virtually every first uphill finish in the Tour). Gilbert (the 2011 version) would qualify as well. But that's about it.

Modern-day riders that have the same pedigree are VdPoel and Evenepoel. If those guys attack, the competition knows they have to get on the wheel ASAP or they will just keep riding and crush everybody in their wake. WvA seems a bit less dominant but he is very mature in his tactics, and his skill set is extremely well-rounded. So he can either try to go for a solo attack (Strade), try to follow the best guy in the race and finish it in the sprint (MSR) and probably finish it off as well in smaller groups (up until some bigger pelotons after a harder race).
 
Honestly, looking at him recently I have this feeling that he might follow the route of Thomas and try to become a gc contender. He is exactly the kind of rider I would look out for if it comes to potential future transformations.

That doesn't mean I want that to happen, as in fact I don't, but I think if he keeps performing like this the talk will start soon and I really think he is the sort of guy who could actually pull it off.
 
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Instead of the people who believe Vd Poel might win the Tour, here is a guy who actually showed top time trial potential and now also a lot of mountain potential.
Definitely the more likely candidate if he ever cares.
I have been saying that for years now (maybe not here, but in general). But i don't think he's going to do that any time soon. Maybe if he wins Roubaix, RVV the next few years... who knows. Can't really read him on whether he would be open to something like that to be honest. But he's got the engine, the power... Mathieu is definitely the more flashy rider, will get more wins more easily, but i think Wout has a bigger allround engine and is likely more consistent. I'm glad it's becoming more apparent to other people that they are in fact rather different riders, while initially people thought they had the same profile and Mathieu was simply the better rider in general.
 
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What is your point? You know how drafting works, right?
I literally made my point in the 2nd half of that post. I disagree with the post I quoted and think people are getting carried away. Stage 2 I think you could make an argument 4, but I don't believe for a second he could've contended for a MTF in the Tour de France. It's not too dissimilar to turns Kwiatkowski has done as a domestique in the mountains, and he's never gotten close to winning one either. It's also easy to ignore he didn't have to do the final 1.5km so his he could empty the tank earlier than the rest of the group.
 
What a stud!

Great quote from him:

"It's just amazing to be part of it. It makes me a bit tired to always answer this question because it's not like helping someone else is something bad or something. It's also beautiful, and if nobody wants to help team leaders then we'd ride the bunch with 20 guys.

"That's no fun, and in the meantime, I showed that if there are stages that are less important for our leaders then I can go for myself, so I don't see any reason to complain about that."
 
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Who was the last real strong do it all rider?
TT -> one of the very best
cobble Classics-> one of the very best
Sprint -> ~Top 20
punch/hilly races -> really good
climbing -> riding like a 3rd or even 2nd domestique

riders like Alaph or Lutsenko are already really complete, but this is a whole different level. One might even say unbelievable in todays time.

Freddy Maertens

Sprint: Maertens > WVA
TT: Even
Classics: Even
Climbing: WVA > Maertens (though Maertens finished 8th in a very mountainous TDF and won a Vuelta without too many mountains)
 
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I have been saying that for years now (maybe not here, but in general). But i don't think he's going to do that any time soon. Maybe if he wins Roubaix, RVV the next few years... who knows. Can't really read him on whether he would be open to something like that to be honest. But he's got the engine, the power... Mathieu is definitely the more flashy rider, will get more wins more easily, but i think Wout has a bigger allround engine and is likely more consistent. I'm glad it's becoming more apparent to other people that they are in fact rather different riders, while initially people thought they had the same profile and Mathieu was simply the better rider in general.
Mathieu is all about pure explosiveness and bike handling ability. He also has great endurance and in-race recovery, but Van Aert is just pure sheer power, on any terrain and any kind of effort wether short (sprint) or long (classics, climbs).
So indeed, they're very different on the road.
 
I think Jumbo's role in his development should not be underestimated either. He seems to thrive super well in such an extremely organized entourage, and he's very well liked in the group.

Imagine if he signed with Lotto Soudal back in the day. He'd be half the rider that he is right now.

As for his GC capabilities, he also has the character and mindset for it. Give him a 'boring' training schedule, 3 weeks on the Teide, and he'd follow it by the minute without a problem, me thinks.
 
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Mathieu is all about pure explosiveness and bike handling ability. He also has great endurance and in-race recovery, but Van Aert is just pure sheer power, on any terrain and any kind of effort whether short (sprint) or long (classics, climbs).
So indeed, they're very different on the road.

It's understandable why they compare them, but it's slightly tiresome, and no longer relevant. Wout is now a full time road rider, who will do some CX in the winter. Yes, Mathieu rides on the road, but is a multi discipline cyclist, and will be until Paris 2024.
 
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I think Jumbo's role in his development should not be underestimated either. He seems to thrive super well in such an extremely organized entourage, and he's very well liked in the group.

Imagine if he signed with Lotto Soudal back in the day. He'd be half the rider that he is right now.

As for his GC capabilities, he also has the character and mindset for it. Give him a 'boring' training schedule, 3 weeks on the Teide, and he'd follow it by the minute without a problem, me thinks.
He's definitely a different rider than 2 years ago. But let's not forget his amazing results when he still rode for Nuyens. He was already 3rd in Strade, he already won an ITT and smaller stage races, was already impressive in his first Roubaix etc.

I'm not a lotto fan (far from it), but he would have made an evolution regardless. Likely not as impressive as with TJV though.
 
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