Teams & Riders The "MVP" Mathieu Van der Poel Road Discussion Thread

[jono]

How does the worlds course compare with today?

 

[Axel Hangleck]

6th at the Mountain bike race in Les Gets. Made a great recovery in the first laps before fading away in the last lap when the attacks started up front.

Its an encouraging result but what impressed me the most was how much better technically some of his rivals were, so I wouldn't expect a medal in the Worlds, two weeks from now.

That isn't really a surprise; they train, and race all the time on the MTB - they should be better. He lost so much time on the technical parts - both from lack of much MTB riding time, and not wanting to take any risks - he had to finish the race. Job done. He did get better as the race went on. I think the Worlds are going to come too soon for him. He could do with more time training & racing.

He improved immeasureably from 2016-2019 when he raced regularly on the MTB.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

How does the worlds course compare with today?

It's more technical - but according to Oli on the commentary, they've toned it down since last year, when there was some criticism - and numerous crashes. A race Pidcock won.....

 

[jono]

Mathieu van der Poel dacht aan winnen in Wereldbeker Les Gets

Lees hoe Mathieu van der Poel met een sterke inhaalrace zesde werd in Les Gets. Ontdek zijn WK-voorbereiding en mis niets van de mountainbike wereldbeker!

www.wielerflits.nl

He seems happy about the result. Apparently he had a really poor start, which would make sense, given he actually lost positions, down to about 45th before moving up through the field.

To have even a small chance at worlds he will have to clean that up for sure, but as noted above, his runway is likely too short to make the technical improvements needed. Are field sizes smaller at a World Championships vs a World Cup?

 

[Ripper]

That isn't really a surprise; they train, and race all the time on the MTB - they should be better. He lost so much time on the technical parts - both from lack of much MTB riding time, and not wanting to take any risks - he had to finish the race. Job done. He did get better as the race went on. I think the Worlds are going to come too soon for him. He could do with more time training & racing.

He improved immeasureably from 2016-2019 when he raced regularly on the MTB.

Yes, really nice to see him be a bit more patient and keep the rubber down. A good result given where he has come from and finally, a positive step in his return to XCO racing

 

[Ripper]

Mathieu van der Poel dacht aan winnen in Wereldbeker Les Gets

Lees hoe Mathieu van der Poel met een sterke inhaalrace zesde werd in Les Gets. Ontdek zijn WK-voorbereiding en mis niets van de mountainbike wereldbeker!

www.wielerflits.nl

He seems happy about the result. Apparently he had a really poor start, which would make sense, given he actually lost positions, down to about 45th before moving up through the field.

To have even a small chance at worlds he will have to clean that up for sure, but as noted above, his runway is likely too short to make the technical improvements needed. Are field sizes smaller at a World Championships vs a World Cup?

I think that poor start actually helped him by letting him pace into the race rather than starting full warp speed and possibly making an error and another crash/DNF. Overall, nice to see him finish and finish well

 

[jono]

I think that poor start actually helped him by letting him pace into the race rather than starting full warp speed and possibly making an error and another crash/DNF. Overall, nice to see him finish and finish well

Probably right. He also mentioned in his interview that he felt like he was lacking a bit of punch which I found interesting but perhaps not surprising after two thirds of a grand tour followed by an illness.