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

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I completely missed that. thought he was waiting it out and cashing in on his free agency. Oh well, guess mvp won’t go for the green jersey then 😅.

Agreed he will study the routes and decide where he can leave the biggest mark. He won’t target the worlds if he is leading out Groennewegen.
Cant wait to watch im in Paris this year I cant see who can challenge him there. The Glasgow performance was breathtaking.
 
Listen guys, you are expecting too much from MvdP at this TdF. He won all his main objectives so far this year, including CX Worlds, Flanders, Paris Roubaix. Then he signed a big contract extension with Alpecin and his main sponsor, Canyon. After that windfall of wins and cash, he went on a long vacation with Roxanne, played a lot of golf, and got really out of cycling shape. He looks a little heavier than his peak racing weight and it shows. Cycling is a cruel sport and if you don't put in the time it will show at the races.
 
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Listen guys, you are expecting too much from MvdP at this TdF. He won all his main objectives so far this year, including CX Worlds, Flanders, Paris Roubaix. Then he signed a big contract extension with Alpecin and his main sponsor, Canyon. After that windfall of wins and cash, he went on a long vacation with Roxanne, played a lot of golf, and got really out of cycling shape. He looks a little heavier than his peak racing weight and it shows. Cycling is a cruel sport and if you don't put in the time it will show at the races.
People are indeed expecting too much from MVDP for this TDF. But that's not because he went on holiday. He's just riding the TDF as a preparation for the Olympics. He's focusing on that.
 
People are indeed expecting too much from MVDP for this TDF. But that's not because he went on holiday. He's just riding the TDF as a preparation for the Olympics. He's focusing on that.
This. DS De Kegel said yesterday that winning a TDF stage is a major goal for Mathieu, but that they aim for his form to peak towards the last two weeks (and the OS of course).
 
At this point a Vuelta stage/red jersey would be worth more than a TDF stage IMO - just to check the box for all three GT's. The TDF is for sponsors and for folks that don't really watch bike racing and for GC guys. MVDP needs to win the races where every leader on every team lines up with the same objective - 1st place. Keep piling on Monuments, WC's (preferably one on the MTB) and an Olympic Gold medal (especially on the road) would be a very, very nice win too. All that said, it will be very hard for him to top last year's WC performance. Guessing that will go down as the best of his career when it is all said and done.
If he top last year's WC performance im getting a tattoo of his face on my arm.

When you count his big wins/monuments vs the rest and realize he done same numbers in far far less tries if you add that on he becomes even greater if you think about it really.
 
Listen guys, you are expecting too much from MvdP at this TdF. He won all his main objectives so far this year, including CX Worlds, Flanders, Paris Roubaix. Then he signed a big contract extension with Alpecin and his main sponsor, Canyon. After that windfall of wins and cash, he went on a long vacation with Roxanne, played a lot of golf, and got really out of cycling shape. He looks a little heavier than his peak racing weight and it shows. Cycling is a cruel sport and if you don't put in the time it will show at the races.
I'll take nearly perfect CX season including WC, decider in team win at MSR, win at RVV, win at PR, podium at LBL and zero stages at TDF every year for the rest of career. After all, wasn't too long ago that folks were questioning whether his career was on a steep downhill decline. These are the halcyon days for MVDP fans. Enjoy them while you can.
 
Far superior to Valverde? I don't think so...
Sagan is also debatable...
And I really like Van Der Poel.
depends on how much you weight certain races.

3x rvv, 2x roubaix an 1x msr and 1x wc vs 1x rvv/pr and 3x world champs and a lot of green jerseys

Sagan won more sprints especially because he is/was a better sprinter.
But VDP is imo the better one day racer already in palmares
 
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How many monuments will he end up with does people think? I mean before he start losing power and not just cant brute force everyone beside Pogacar anymore. He's not that old.

And is he already above Cancellara and Boonen? When you factor in the wins in way less tries I think you can already have a case idk. He is just a special specimen.
 
I'd say, in terms of one-day races, he's damn close to those two, and may even surpass them this year, especially Cancellara who I rate slightly below Boonen.
Depends also a bit on what Van der Poel is able to archive at Liege - Bastogne - Liege & Lombardy.

Because Gilbert in the end surpassed both with the variety of his palmares.

But that's partly personal valuation of course!