Teams & Riders Official Wout Van Aert thread

[Extinction]

I don't think I'm underestimating Van Aert. I think his peak version would have a decent chance to win a GT containing weak field. As for MVP, we are agreeing.

You would have to go back to the 80s for him to win a GT, but only in his 22 form.

 

[Red Rick]

I think an important thing easy to forget for this hypothetical is they wouldn't need to match the best climbers, they would most likely only need to limit the damage to like 2 minutes on a 40 minute MTF. And there were some absolutely all time low W/kg numbers on some mountain stages back then.

The legendary Quintana Val Martello stage is like 4.5 W/kg on the Stelvio and 5.1 W/kg on Val Martello. That's some gruppetto stuff.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

I think an important thing easy to forget for this hypothetical is they wouldn't need to match the best climbers, they would most likely only need to limit the damage to like 2 minutes on a 40 minute MTF. And there were some absolutely all time low W/kg numbers on some mountain stages back then.

The legendary Quintana Val Martello stage is like 4.5 W/kg on the Stelvio and 5.1 W/kg on Val Martello. That's some gruppetto stuff.

Wasn't weather conditions terrible and cold then? There must have been a reason the wattage was so low. Obviously in 2012 MVP wouldn't even be close to his current watts and it's hard to imagine him limiting his losses to one of the best climbers of that generation on a super hard mountain stage (BTW I dunno how losing 2 minutes on every decent MTF would be enough for MVP: he wouldn't gain so many minutes elsewhere).

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

I mean every single rider top rider today would mop up monument after monument with the occasional GT for variety in with their current ability in the age of Boonen and Cancellara.

Haven't you frequently made the point that watts are rising for everyone so you shouldn't assume that if you drop rider A into a different era they carry their same watts, but it's instead more likely that they would adjust down relative to the era? And vice versa. Like surely if you put pre-ban Contador into today's era he wouldn't be competing with Onley for top 5.

 

[Red Rick]

Haven't you frequently made the point that watts are rising for everyone so you shouldn't assume that if you drop rider A into a different era they carry their same watts, but it's instead more likely that they would adjust down relative to the era? And vice versa. Like surely if you put pre-ban Contador into today's era he wouldn't be competing with Onley for top 5.

The world has not rewarded me for 30 years of intellectually honest purity, so today I take a cheat day

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

The world has not rewarded me for 30 years of intellectually honest purity, so today I take a cheat day

It feels good to let loose, doesn’t it?

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Wout just posted a 70 mile gravel ride, and mentioned earlier this year that he wanted to do Unbound. I took that to mean in the future, but maybe this year?

His next scheduled races is Tour Auvergne, which starts the Saturday after Unbound.

 

[Netserk]

he is going to cause them to not ride the new ttt format optimally yet again with the uwn of having someone else with the same time as the gc leader

Wout van Aert in first major interview after Roubaix win: "Chance for yellow jersey in the Tour"

Wout van Aert is still riding his 'pink cloud' several weeks after his victory in Paris-Roubaix, but slowly and surely the Belgian is shifting his focus...

cyclingflash.com

And the Tour de France? What are your ambitions there?
"I still have many ambitions for the Tour. I’m really looking forward to it, especially the opening weekend. The Tour has a route this year with not many opportunities for me, but in the first weekend there are. As a team, we want to win the team time trial. We have worked hard all year on that. If we do that well, there is also a chance for me to take the yellow jersey."

 

[Berniece]

he is going to cause them to not ride the new ttt format optimally yet again with the uwn of having someone else with the same time as the gc leader

Wout van Aert in first major interview after Roubaix win: "Chance for yellow jersey in the Tour"

Wout van Aert is still riding his 'pink cloud' several weeks after his victory in Paris-Roubaix, but slowly and surely the Belgian is shifting his focus...

cyclingflash.com

Yeah that’s completely his fault

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Wout just posted a 70 mile gravel ride, and mentioned earlier this year that he wanted to do Unbound. I took that to mean in the future, but maybe this year?

His next scheduled races is Tour Auvergne, which starts the Saturday after Unbound.

He's doing Marly Grav tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers for an Unbound start.

 

[meat puppet]

Seemed to be cruising today, no one had anything close to an answer to the last dig.

 

[peterfin]

Van Aert is free as a bird. We know what this means for the TdF.

 

[jono]

He's almost evened the score against Niels Vandeputte for the season.

 

[Wyndbrook]

Seemed to be cruising today, no one had anything close to an answer to the last dig.

Just seen some short clips of race, good win for him, unfortunate crash for Vermeersch effectively put him out of the race.

 

[Lequack]

So is he sick or just too much partying after Paris-Roubaix?

 

[tobydawq]

So is he sick or just too much partying after Paris-Roubaix?

He had a crash last week but I have a hard time believing that can explain what we are seeing in this race. I wouldn't be surprised if he has some sort of virus like those that have sidelined Poole, Laporte and Kooij recently. Just maybe a little less serious since he's actually able to finish races.

 

[KoopaCycling]

He had a crash last week but I have a hard time believing that can explain what we are seeing in this race. I wouldn't be surprised if he has some sort of virus like those that have sidelined Poole, Laporte and Kooij recently. Just maybe a little less serious since he's actually able to finish races.

He's just undercooked after celebrating winning Roubaix.

 

[tobydawq]

He's just undercooked after celebrating winning Roubaix.

Ah, okay, thanks for the inside information.

 

[Red Rick]

If there is any race where being *** is perfectly fine its like Algarve and the first half of Dauphine

 

[Rackham]

Plot twist: he's deliberately sandbagging before the Tour as to avoid Trine's wrath and make it look like he couldn't possibly be stage hunting next month because he doesn't have the legs.

It's chess.

 

[tobydawq]

If there is any race where being *** is perfectly fine its like Algarve and the first half of Dauphine

Why??

 

[Lequack]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2065029875757359212

View: https://x.com/categorycafe/status/2065029875757359212?s=20

 

[Wyndbrook]

I always struggle to understand the guy conducting the interviews, as my wifes says 'a complete waffler'. Woult seems to grap the basics today, but unsurprisingly he often gets replys unrelated to what I think was the qustion asked.
Good job he never interviewed a young Cav.

 

[theyoungest]

I always struggle to understand the guy conducting the interviews, as my wifes says 'a complete waffler'. Woult seems to grap the basics today, but unsurprisingly he often gets replys unrelated to what I think was the qustion asked.
Good job he never interviewed a young Cav.

His English actually isn't that bad (certainly for a Frenchman) but his pronunciation sucks so much that it's still mostly incomprehensible. Indeed not the ideal choice for someone whose entire job it is to conduct these interviews.

 

[MJR]

🤭