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

[tonymikejoe]

His poor team meant he had to chase down all the dangerous breaks himself in the finale.
Meanwhile, the stage winner was able to sit in the wheels and allow any of his many teamates to do that job for him.
Was I the only person screaming for MVP to win as they bombed down the straight to the finish line?
It certainly feels like it.

 

[Bonimenier]

His poor team meant he had to chase down all the dangerous breaks himself in the finale.
Meanwhile, the stage winner was able to sit in the wheels and allow any of his many teamates to do that job for him.
Was I the only person screaming for MVP to win as they bombed down the straight to the finish line?
It certainly feels like it.

That's not true. If he wanted a sprint the only guy he had to follow was Girmay as his teammates would have chased back any other rider.

 

[sir fly]

His poor team meant he had to chase down all the dangerous breaks himself in the finale.
Meanwhile, the stage winner was able to sit in the wheels and allow any of his many teamates to do that job for him.
Was I the only person screaming for MVP to win as they bombed down the straight to the finish line?
It certainly feels like it.

Intermarche was chasing anyway.
Girmay should've been his only concern.
...if sure in his sprint.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

That's not true. If he wanted a sprint the only guy he had to follow was Girmay as his teammates would have chased back any other rider.

I think his tactical situation was more complex than that. I’m not sure that Pozzovivo and Hirt are exactly the guys you want to be counting on to control things. MVDP effectively killed the main attack we saw, but if he hadn’t it might have been a messy finale. He made a mess of his tactics, but I think he probably was going to have to do more than follow Wanty and hope.

 

[senna6541]

MVDP is a force of nature. Who cares if he makes a mess of tactics, etc. The guy lights it up every time he races, and is basically an artist with the he is one with the bike - even Sean Kelly was impressed with the way he swiped the ice pack at 30mph today. What makes him different is that on any given day he can do things on a bike that no one else in the world can do. He's having fun at the Giro - his career won't be measured by stage wins at a race like this. Sure he could've won today if he was a bit more tactical, but it would've been a helluva lot less fun to watch - same goes for last Saturday's stage. This guy has won so many bike races over the past 7-8 years - he's probably enjoying not just being able to line up and dominate.

 

[dutchdescent]

He said something on ‘Wielerflits’ about previewing the stage with the team on Veloviewer. They had set their minds on attacking the last descent, since they thought it was quite technical and favored a solo attack. Matthieu said it turned out to be less so but tried anyway. He said it was tough to recover from that effort.
Maybe it cost him the endurance in his sprint.

 

[glassmoon]

He said something on ‘Wielerflits’ about previewing the stage with the team on Veloviewer. They had set their minds on attacking the last descent, since they thought it was quite technical and favored a solo attack. Matthieu said it turned out to be less so but tried anyway. He said it was tough to recover from that effort.
Maybe it cost him the endurance in his sprint.

that (and other gap closings) definitely cost him... and based on how he races, it'll cost him many wins in the future too - but it's fun to watch and sometimes it might actually lead to a successful finish

 

[senna6541]

Have a feeling he is going to do something big tomorrow. That said, don't think we are seeing truly full strength MVDP here. Not like he was at SB, TA, Swiss or TDF last year - on that form he is almost unbeatable. Everyone forgets that most folks thought he'd be lucky to be racing right now with the back issue that held him up. Love watching this guy race the bike. Even better when he's on the CX or MTB.

 

[Red Rick]

Have a feeling he is going to do something big tomorrow. That said, don't think we are seeing truly full strength MVDP here. Not like he was at SB, TA, Swiss or TDF last year - on that form he is almost unbeatable. Everyone forgets that most folks thought he'd be lucky to be racing right now with the back issue that held him up. Love watching this guy race the bike. Even better when he's on the CX or MTB.

Even on that form he's inconsistent.

MvdP got beaten bad on stage 1 of the Tour last year. Then on stage 7 in the super long break he wasn't great in that break either.

 

[Bolder]

that (and other gap closings) definitely cost him... and based on how he races, it'll cost him many wins in the future too - but it's fun to watch and sometimes it might actually lead to a successful finish

It's also that he's not gotten this deep in a GT. Was Blockhaus the hardest climb he's ever done in a race? Granted, he wasn't racing it hard, but he still had to go 200 kms.

IMO he ought to be a little more careful about spending energy over 3 weeks, but I'm sure he will figure it out if he wants to ride full GTs.

 

[glassmoon]

It's also that he's not gotten this deep in a GT. Was Blockhaus the hardest climb he's ever done in a race? Granted, he wasn't racing it hard, but he still had to go 200 kms.

IMO he ought to be a little more careful about spending energy over 3 weeks, but I'm sure he will figure it out if he wants to ride full GTs.

yeah... I'm not sure what he was trying there instead of chilling back in gruppetto... maybe he's pushing himself a bit just get an idea how what he can or can't do during the Tour

 

[Bonimenier]

Have a feeling he is going to do something big tomorrow. That said, don't think we are seeing truly full strength MVDP here. Not like he was at SB, TA, Swiss or TDF last year - on that form he is almost unbeatable. Everyone forgets that most folks thought he'd be lucky to be racing right now with the back issue that held him up. Love watching this guy race the bike. Even better when he's on the CX or MTB.

You should really stop with "he is not at full strength"-bs every time he doesn't win everything he wants.

 

[Bolder]

You should really stop with "he is not at full strength"-bs every time he doesn't win everything he wants.

Yeah, he's a watt monster but he's not invincible, even at full strength. The peloton is learning how to neutralize him, just as it did with Sagan.

 

[Red Rick]

Yeah, he's a watt monster but he's not invincible, even at full strength. The peloton is learning how to neutralize him, just as it did with Sagan.

Its way easier cause Sagan was actually a sprinter too

 

[stonerider]

He said something on ‘Wielerflits’ about previewing the stage with the team on Veloviewer. They had set their minds on attacking the last descent, since they thought it was quite technical and favored a solo attack. Matthieu said it turned out to be less so but tried anyway. He said it was tough to recover from that effort.
Maybe it cost him the endurance in his sprint.

Wout would have taken that solo attack gap all the way to the finish for a win.

 

[dutchdescent]

Wout would have taken that solo attack gap all the way to the finish for a win.

I’m sure he would have

 

[Red Rick]

Got in the break today but very underwhelming IMO.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Got in the break today but very underwhelming IMO.

I think his lack of a training base because of his back injury is showing . Maybe he's hoping to ride himself into great shape for the Tour, but atm it doesn't look like that.

 

[SafeBet]

Was the plan to ride for himself though? I didn't watch the whole stage but everytime I turned the TV on he was pulling the big group.

 

[stonerider]

I think his lack of a training base because of his back injury is showing . Maybe he's hoping to ride himself into great shape for the Tour, but atm it doesn't look like that.

I believe his thinking was to use the Giro and Tour to increase his base fitness while going for stage wins here and there. Does he get start money for these races?

 

[Mayomaniac]

I believe his thinking was to use the Giro and Tour to increase his base fitness while going for stage wins here and there. Does he get start money for these races?

RCS is probably paying him a decent amount of start money for the Giro.

 

[Lequack]

What a ride today, hats off

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Weirdly reassuring that he can’t just decide to be a climber now

 

[Nick2413]

Weirdly reassuring that he can’t just decide to be a climber now

He’s about as lean as he’s ever going to get too, and probably not much to gain by dropping muscle.

 

[Red Rick]

His climbing is a little sad in the sense that it's not good enough to win mountain stage breakaways even if he does all the descending attacks and tactics in the world.