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