Brullnux said:Van der Poel is transitioning to mtb at least until 2020 probably. I think cycing fans often forget that a factor influencing a rider's choice could just be enjoyment of the sport, and VdP just enjoys cross/mtb much mroe than road cycling. Besides, the pay in cross isn't too much less. I mean, he (vdp) made at least 40k in prize money alone last year, and Wout made around 30k, not including sponsorship or salary from the team, or even continental races.
All very true and by the way as I often reminded on these boards, also Wout enjoys cyclocross a lot more. It was his dream as a kid to be a cyclocrosser, not a roadie. Only his body is better built for road racing than it is for cyclocross, at least now because that was not the case in the youth categories. Besides, so far Wout's problem on the road has always been the distance (see Belgian Nats in the past two years; he's also admitted it several times himself). So the results that he's had so far this road season could've been expected but if he also performs like that at the Tour of Flander*s, you might say that he's ready to switch but until then, you cannot draw any conclusion. By the way I'm not sure that Wout and Mathieu could be regular opponents on the road given the fact that Wout would rather focus on the cobbled classics (he's way too heavy for the Ardennes, as a matter of fact he's also normally too heavy for cyclocrosser) while Mathieu would rather focus on the Ardennes, the way I see it if he ever switch to the road.