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

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Well done. Congratulations, 2 wins and 2nd place in last editions. The guy is a master of monuments, even if some ppl like to argue against the win ratio in them (ignoring the difficult circumstances of last 2 years while he went into his prime). Paris-Roubaix next, hopefully against WVA. :hearteyes:
 
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A pretty ignorant view, you may not like it, but plenty do, and regularly has big fields; And is a true 'all round' test of a cyclist. You're combining road fitness with bike handling skills of downhill/enduro rider to be the complete XC rider.

MTB is un-finished business for him; a World title and the Olympics are within his ability. We didn't see the best of him last season on the MTB. And he still has by far the most amount of XCC World Cup wins - the only one with double figure wins.
Love watching MVDP race on the MTB. He'll do what he wants. Roadies love to bag on MVDP for the MTB, but the bigger waste IMO is Wout doing all that worthless domestique work for the likes of Roglic, etc. in GT's and other stage races.
 
Love watching MVDP race on the MTB. He'll do what he wants. Roadies love to bag on MVDP for the MTB, but the bigger waste IMO is Wout doing all that worthless domestique work for the likes of Roglic, etc. in GT's and other stage races.
Good point re: WVA
The simple truth is nobody gives a *** about the green jersey and Roglic can win the Tour. And even Sagan did domestique work for Contador way back when. And it's not like he's sacrificing his precious one day races.

MvdP in MTB I'm completely indifferent to.
 
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The simple truth is nobody gives a *** about the green jersey and Roglic can win the Tour. And even Sagan did domestique work for Contador way back when. And it's not like he's sacrificing his precious one day races.

MvdP in MTB I'm completely indifferent to.
Don't recall watching Boonen pace GC guys up high mountains - smart enough to cut loose from Postal early on. A professional team like JV seems to fit Wout, but he better be careful not to end up a glorified George Hincapie (and at least LA always had the balls - or ball - to close the deal).
 
I simply do not know why hes so obsessed with MTB, even his biggest fans dont give a ***, but I guess he just loves it for some reason. Its a shame to waste time on discipline that very, very few actually care enough to watch outside the Olympics. Would it realistically add to his palmares? Not in my opinion. A win in G-W would be bigger.
 
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Don't recall watching Boonen pace GC guys up high mountains - smart enough to cut loose from Postal early on. A professional team like JV seems to fit Wout, but he better be careful not to end up a glorified George Hincapie (and at least LA always had the balls - or ball - to close the deal).
Hincapie won one single semi-classic. Van Aert has 5 + one monument.

And when it comes to prioritizing and being able to win the biggest races, I would claim that Van Aerts own ambitions last year was a much bigger problem than him doing some domestique work for Roglic. He tried to peak his form for the spring classics, used a lot of energy on TA, used energy on winning on Mont Ventoux and a ITT in the Tour, tried to be in peak shape for the Olympics (both the RR and the ITT), uses far to much energy on Tour of Britian and then tried to be in peak shape for the Worlds (both RR and ITT) and PR.
 
I simply do not know why hes so obsessed with MTB, even his biggest fans dont give a ***, but I guess he just loves it for some reason. Its a shame to waste time on discipline that very, very few actually care enough to watch outside the Olympics. Would it realistically add to his palmares? Not in my opinion. A win in G-W would be bigger.

Unlike cross, MTB and road fan bases don't overlap much, but there are a lot more people following MTB than cross worldwide. I wouldn't say that very few actually care. The base is growing very much, but has the handicap of being held on sundays usually at the same time as the Giro, Tour or Vuelta weekend stages.

That said, although a G-W win would be bigger than an individual World Cup, I wouldn't trade one World MTB Championships or an overall world cup for a G-W. And some of his duels with Schurter of 2019 are there on the top of some of the most spectacular performances of his career.
 
Unlike cross, MTB and road fan bases don't overlap much, but there are a lot more people following MTB than cross worldwide. I wouldn't say that very few actually care. The base is growing very much, but has the handicap of being held on Sunday'i s usually at the same time as the Giro, Tour or Vuelta weekend stages.

That said, although a G-W win would be bigger than an individual World Cup, I wouldn't trade one World MTB Championships or an overall world cup for a G-W. And some of his duels with Schurter of 2019 are there on the top of some of the most spectacular performances of his career.

From a multi discipline view, 2019 was his best year; CX Worlds, and World Tour wins, and then he finally cracked the XCO races, and was the best rider that season. Those two attacks to drop Schurter at Nove Mesto & Lenzerheide are up there with his Strada Bianchi attacks.

There's really only one country were CX is bigger than MTB; and that's Belgium.....I doubt most have heard of Martin Maes (DH/Enduro race winner). It seems for your average Belgian cycling fan, CX in the winter, and Road in the summer. It's noticeable on the CX social media accounts; CX riders in the classics get mentioned; but those riding MTB don't. There'll be 3 CX World Cup race winners riding this weekend in Brazil, plus an Elite CX World Champion.
 
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From a multi discipline view, 2019 was his best year; CX Worlds, and World Tour wins, and then he finally cracked the XCO races, and was the best rider that season. Those two attacks to drop Schurter at Nove Mesto & Lenzerheide are up there with his Strada Bianchi attacks.

There's really only one country were CX is bigger than MTB; and that's Belgium.....I doubt most have heard of Martin Maes (DH/Enduro race winner). It seems for your average Belgian cycling fan, CX in the winter, and Road in the summer. It's noticeable on the CX social media accounts; CX riders in the classics get mentioned; but those riding MTB don't. There'll be 3 CX World Cup race winners riding this weekend in Brazil, plus an Elite CX World Champion.
Yeah, but there's clearly more money to be made in CX than MTB (as a rider).
 
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CX must be much easier to combine with road racing if don't have ambitions to compete for the overall World Cup and other events like Superprestige, etc. VdP or Van Aert could end their road racing seasons in the start of October, take some weeks off and train before doing CX World Cup races in December and January and the Worlds in late January/early February. Then some time off to train again before starting the classics season. It may be difficult to be in peak shape for Omloop or Strade, but should be possible for late March and April.

MTB racing is worse. World Cup races spread throughout the summer season and World Championships in late August (?). Makes it hard to compete optimally both in the Tour and for the fall classics. And both CX + MTB season in addition to road racing could reduce the chances for both the spring and fall classics.
 
I simply do not know why hes so obsessed with MTB, even his biggest fans dont give a ***, but I guess he just loves it for some reason.
I don't think it's strange at all. I mean, road cycling sure as hell doesn't look like it's a lot of fun to do, except in the finale. MTB on the other hand...
Like, I always enjoyed playing tennis, but I cannot be bothered to watch it. Road cycling is the reverse, basically.
 
Without Pog, WvA or Alaph, very hard.

Guess there's a world in which the selection isn't too crazy after the Keutenberg section and he has to control too many dudes.

He's a lot better than when he won in 2019
Yes.

I think Alpecin might be the biggest problem. Although most of the time now he doesn't seem to need them.
But if he gets caught with a select group and they are not riders like Poga or Wout who will ride with him he might be stuck in a difficult sitation.

Especially if he comes alone in a group with Ineos with Pidcock, Hayter, Kwiato it could be really difficult to control.