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

[senna6541]

Too bad he won't give Lombardy a shot, but at least we get to see him on the gravel. 2025 needs to about the MTB after the Spring Classics.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Too bad he won't give Lombardy a shot, but at least we get to see him on the gravel. 2025 needs to about the MTB after the Spring Classics.

Lombardia is another beast. He can't handle 10 km climbs against UAE. He simply can't

 

[OlavEH]

2025 needs to about the MTB after the Spring Classics.

Needs to be. Why? I actually hope he would skip that entirely.

 

[James M]

Needs to be. Why? I actually hope he would skip that entirely.

Same and ive heard he hints at it. He think he can become even better in RR season doing so. And as he is getting older something will have to give he hinted so im expecting it within the next two years.

 

[Gigs_98]

He is really good at pacing himself in these kind of hilly one day races which is why he is consistently getting really good results at them. That said, I do think people would attack his climbing weakness harder if there wasn't always someone like Pogacar or Evenepoel another minute up the road. He is yet to win a serious one day race with climbs harder than in AGR and even that he only won with a strong dose of luck, but I still think this recipe might win him a LBL or a world championship on a course people thought was too hard for him.

 

[Valv.Piti]

This Lombardia route is by no means easy. MVDP will get absolutely smoked on Sormano no matter what shape he brings, its a very hard climb. As a matter of fact, I have actually done it countless of times and its mostly a 7-8% climb for 10 km into a small plateau lowering the avg. gradients and then kicking up towards the end. Way, way out of his league IMO, but if you believe in fairytales..

 

[Krzysztof_O]

This Lombardia route is by no means easy. MVDP will get absolutely smoked on Sormano no matter what shape he brings, its a very hard climb. As a matter of fact, I have actually done it countless of times and its mostly a 7-8% climb for 10 km into a small plateau lowering the avg. gradients and then kicking up towards the end. Way, way out of his league IMO, but if you believe in fairytales..

There's no official confirmation of his participation yet. Gravel WC is surely on his menu. If he starts then yeah, it will be difficult. Pogacar will be unreachable but under some good circumstances (he manages to catch a strong chasing group on the descent) MVP might get top3 there. It will be harder to achieve than during this WC and I think it's more likely he won't make it to the podium. Top10 is more realistic.

 

[DutchDynamite]

There's no official confirmation of his participation yet. Gravel WC is surely on his menu. If he starts then yeah, it will be difficult. Pogacar will be unreachable but under some good circumstances (he manages to catch a strong chasing group on the descent) MVP might get top3 there. It will be harder to achieve than during this WC and I think it's more likely he won't make it to the podium. Top10 is more realistic.

No way he gets top 3...not even in my dreams (i like him as a racer quiet a lot but we need to be realistic).

The route is still ridicously hard... and pogi is there with uae.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

he might have won Lombardia in the era that Bettini and Gilbert won it. Different course and different riders now

 

[Krzysztof_O]

he might have won Lombardia in the era that Bettini and Gilbert won it. Different course and different riders now

Hard to imagine a typical classics specialist winning this race now (Bettini had one GT top10 though). Nowadays, you need to be a really good climber to win...you basically need to be Pogacar so it's tricky for the rest!

 

[Peyroteo94]

he might have won Lombardia in the era that Bettini and Gilbert won it. Different course and different riders now

Bettini and Gilbert were better climbers than MVP (specially Bettini).

 

[Wyndbrook]

Sounds like his naughty boy riding on the pavement fun has not been forgotten.
Latvian president asking why he was not DQ for endangering spectators.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

Sounds like his naughty boy riding on the pavement fun has not been forgotten.
Latvian president asking why he was not DQ for endangering spectators.

They are very much in their right as well. Something like drafting and subsequent punishment leaves room and is always up for interpretation. Riding on the pavement, otoh, is not. The rulebook is clear, Van der Poel should be DQ'd.

 

[rallybanana]

I'd completely forgotten about that incident. 100% agree with Latvia on this one.

 

[Tim Cahill]

 

[Axel Hangleck]

They are very much in their right as well. Something like drafting and subsequent punishment leaves room and is always up for interpretation. Riding on the pavement, otoh, is not. The rulebook is clear, Van der Poel should be DQ'd.

Yeah, I can't disagree with that. Guilty, and should have been DSQ within 5-10 mins. It was that blatant......

The UCI really haven't had a great Worlds......failing to DSQ, and the tragic issues over an injured 'missing' rider.....

 

[samhocking]

If the UCI comms really said 'it wouldn't be good for the sport' to have DQ MVDP for breaking the rules, that's a particularly worrying statement in one of the sports most important races and one actually organised by UCI itself rather than a Race Organiser directly.

 

[theyoungest]

Sounds like his naughty boy riding on the pavement fun has not been forgotten.
Latvian president asking why he was not DQ for endangering spectators.

I'm sure it's really about the spectators for the Latvian cycling federation, and not about their guy potentially finishing on the podium if MVDP got disqualified

 

[Highlander]

I'm sure it's really about the spectators for the Latvian cycling federation, and not about their guy potentially finishing on the podium if MVDP got disqualified

Does it really matter? I doubt that Skujins would have gotten the same latitude if he was the one caught on tv riding on the pavement.

 

[Gratemans]

I'm sure it's really about the spectators for the Latvian cycling federation, and not about their guy potentially finishing on the podium if MVDP got disqualified

And what's wrong with that exactly? I love Mathieu, but he should have been disqualified. And Latvia brings up a good point: if bigger names get punished less, smaller cycling nations like themselves will be at a disadvantage even more.

 

[Tim Cahill]

They didn't have a problem throwing Luke Rowe out of Flanders for trying to avoid crashing a few years back.

 

[Red Rick]

If the UCI comms really said 'it wouldn't be good for the sport' to have DQ MVDP for breaking the rules, that's a particularly worrying statement in one of the sports most important races and one actually organised by UCI itself rather than a Race Organiser directly.

Wouldnt be good for sport to punish cheating if the cheater is popular enough

 

[theyoungest]

And what's wrong with that exactly? I love Mathieu, but he should have been disqualified. And Latvia brings up a good point: if bigger names get punished less, smaller cycling nations like themselves will be at a disadvantage even more.

I don't like them pretending that they're doing this for the greater good when they have a clear personal stake in this. It makes it a bit hypocritical. Whether MVDP gets DQ'ed or not, I couldn't care less, and I doubt he does either.

I don't think it really matters about how big the cycling nation is, after all Nils Eekhoff got robbed of a world title a few years ago and he's Dutch. If there is a double standard, it's probably more about how big the rider is. Pogi would probably get a free pass as well.

 

[Rackham]

Oh look, rules arbitrarily not getting enforced for xyz reasons... and people wonder why Rog's 20 second drafting penalty in the Vuelta made some of us ROFL.

Welcome to pro cycling... and it's inexplicable inconsistencies.

 

[Gratemans]

I don't like them pretending that they're doing this for the greater good when they have a clear personal stake in this. It makes it a bit hypocritical. Whether MVDP gets DQ'ed or not, I couldn't care less, and I doubt he does either.

I don't think it really matters about how big the cycling nation is, after all Nils Eekhoff got robbed of a world title a few years ago and he's Dutch. If there is a double standard, it's probably more about how big the rider is. Pogi would probably get a free pass as well.

That's actually what I meant with 'bigger names': bigger riders.
Smaller cycling nations often don't have such names in their selection.