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

[Axel Hangleck]

Re: Re:

Though he at least gave him a run for his money.

VDP hasn't been even remotely close to Schurter, on any occasion.

A lot has to happen if he wants to become Olympic champion in 2020. Forget about the road entirely and possibly cut a little bit in cx as well. And replace all of it with specific mtb training. Something like that.

I must admit, I've thought that watching the XCO races this season; he's beaten everybody bar Schurter; which is why he finished 2nd in the World Cup.
However, next season will tell us more; he has to finish closer to Nino, and start beating him. He needs to step up another level - which is possible, but doing 3 disciplines is possibly holding him back. And I say that as somebody who loves to see riders switch disciplines.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Though he at least gave him a run for his money.

VDP hasn't been even remotely close to Schurter, on any occasion.

A lot has to happen if he wants to become Olympic champion in 2020. Forget about the road entirely and possibly cut a little bit in cx as well. And replace all of it with specific mtb training. Something like that.

I must admit, I've thought that watching the XCO races this season; he's beaten everybody bar Schurter; which is why he finished 2nd in the World Cup.
However, next season will tell us more; he has to finish closer to Nino, and start beating him. He needs to step up another level - which is possible, but doing 3 disciplines is possibly holding him back. And I say that as somebody who loves to see riders switch disciplines.

It's not just Schurter. Kerschbaumer for example has beaten Mathieu comfortably the last 3 races as well.

 

[glassmoon]

Re: Re:

Though he at least gave him a run for his money.

VDP hasn't been even remotely close to Schurter, on any occasion.

A lot has to happen if he wants to become Olympic champion in 2020. Forget about the road entirely and possibly cut a little bit in cx as well. And replace all of it with specific mtb training. Something like that.

I must admit, I've thought that watching the XCO races this season; he's beaten everybody bar Schurter; which is why he finished 2nd in the World Cup.
However, next season will tell us more; he has to finish closer to Nino, and start beating him. He needs to step up another level - which is possible, but doing 3 disciplines is possibly holding him back. And I say that as somebody who loves to see riders switch disciplines.

It's not just Schurter. Kerschbaumer for example has beaten Mathieu comfortably the last 3 races as well.

He's (Kersch) great rider. Also my dark horse for the WCH.
I wouldn't read much in the MVP's late results though. He's just tired cause of ridiculously long season - that's all. He still can out power all the guys in shorter efforts (xcc) though, but if he really is after the XCO Olympics in 2020 he needs to specialize and cut down the races/seasons drastically. You can't have it all Mathieu, at least not as a "elite man rider"...

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Meirhaeghe thinks MVDP is a contender for gold in Tokyo.

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsporza.be%2Fnl%2F2018%2F09%2F05%2Fmeirhaeghe-over-wk-mountainbike-mensen-houden-meer-rekening-me%2F&edit-text=

 

[Flamin]

Missed the start by like 20 seconds, but I saw VDP already way back. Wasn't he allowed to start on the first row?

 

[Ricco']

Re:

Missed the start by like 20 seconds, but I saw VDP already way back. Wasn't he allowed to start on the first row?

No, the rows were composed based on UCI ranking.

3rd at finish, good race by him. Started way back, made the impression he could join Nino and Kerschi halfway through the race but not strong enough on the final. But for me it was one of his best races of the season.

 

[Black Betsy]

Great recovery for bronze.
Incredible Nino.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Missed the start by like 20 seconds, but I saw VDP already way back. Wasn't he allowed to start on the first row?

No, the rows were composed based on UCI ranking.

3rd at finish, good race by him. Started way back, made the impression he could join Nino and Kerschi halfway through the race but not strong enough on the final. But for me it was one of his best races of the season.

Nah, Schurter and Kerschbaumer were clearly not pushing very hard there. One acceleration from Schurter doubled the gap again.

Nevertheless a strong race, by far best of the rest but also a level or two below Schurter/Kerschbaumer.

 

[glassmoon]

Great race by MVP. Especially considering that start. Wonder how his next season will go and whether he's gonna cut at least 1/3 of the race days... Hope he has a solid plan if he wants that 2020 Tokyo gold.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Well he has 2 years to close that gap. And Schurter won't get better

 

[glassmoon]

Well he has 2 years to close that gap. And Schurter won't get better

Agree. But if he'll insist on the 11,5 months long seasons... then I dunno

 

[May0maniac]

Well he has 2 years to close that gap. And Schurter won't get better

I hope that our local guy Kerschbaumer will still improve (I'd love to see him doing CX durning the Winter like Eva Lechner or even on the road), but you're probably right when it comes to Schurter.

 

[Ricco']

Is it true that he is going to start next sunday on the Brico Cross at Geraardsbergen, as I've read at @Cyclocrosss on instagram? If so, that is crazy.

 

[Flamin]

https://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/mathieu-van-der-poel-slaat-seizoensopener-en-trip-naar-vs-over/

Nope, 4 weeks of rest, so no World Cup in the States. The only right option of course. First showdown Mathieu vs Wout in Meulebeke (6th of Oct).

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yeah. Don't want to do a Vos and burnout yourself. Means he won't win the world cup this season

 

[luckyboy]

Possible fractured ankle for MVDP after a crash in Lokeren today

https://sporza.be/nl/2018/10/13/zware-blessure-van-der-poel-europees-kampioen-verlaat-cross-met0/

video of crash (not graphic) - https://twitter.com/cyclocross24/status/1051098418431619072

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Ouch, that sucks

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

No fractures. Still will be out for a couple of weeks. That will end his ambition of riding for Superprestige GC

Could well be a blessing in disguise. Maybe now he will finally be good at the world championship and it forces him to do less in front o his first spring season on the road

 

[rghysens]

Re:

No fractures. Still will be out for a couple of weeks. That will end his ambition of riding for Superprestige GC

Could well be a blessing in disguise. Maybe now he will finally be good at the world championship and it forces him to do less in front o his first spring season on the road

He won it in 2015 and podiumed in 2017 and 2018. And in 2017 he only podiumed because he had 4 flat tyres, otherwise he would have won it easily.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Re: Re:

No fractures. Still will be out for a couple of weeks. That will end his ambition of riding for Superprestige GC

Could well be a blessing in disguise. Maybe now he will finally be good at the world championship and it forces him to do less in front o his first spring season on the road

He won it in 2015 and podiumed in 2017 and 2018. And in 2017 he only podiumed because he had 4 flat tyres, otherwise he would have won it easily.

He won it in 2015 because Van Aert, who was the fastest in race that year, had a mechanical. Van der Poels entourage discussed Van Aerts tyres prior to the 2017 WC, but they deemed the advantage not worth it compared to how bad these tyres "rode", as the rider would burn through energy getting some speed on those things. This was in a documentary filmed from inside Van der Poels trailer.
Van der Poel also lost the 2014 WC for U23 to Van Aert with minutes behind.
That's 4 on 5 he lost, and the one he won, he won because the fastest guy in the race got eliminated for the win.
The BS tyre debacle of 2017 needs to stop. There was only one guy with the power to push those tractor tyres along the course and he won the race.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re:

No fractures. Still will be out for a couple of weeks. That will end his ambition of riding for Superprestige GC

Could well be a blessing in disguise. Maybe now he will finally be good at the world championship and it forces him to do less in front o his first spring season on the road

He will start today if the pain is somewhat bearable.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

lol triggered Belgian logic above here... MvdP wins but WvA has a mechanical "WvA was the strongest". MvdP has 4 mechanicals whilst being faster "WvA was the only one with the power on the right tyres and deserved to win"

Do you even believe yourself?
Well you probably do. No. I don't agree on the worlds part. I don't count U23 and in terms of who was the strongest at the elites it was 2-2, but WvA got lucky once, so it's 1-3

 

[tobydawq]

Apparently, yesterday was the first of 135 cross races that van der Poel and Van Aert both attended where neither ended on the podium.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Maybe their escapades to MTB and road are starting to catch up

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Re:

lol triggered Belgian logic above here... MvdP wins but WvA has a mechanical "WvA was the strongest". MvdP has 4 mechanicals whilst being faster "WvA was the only one with the power on the right tyres and deserved to win"

Do you even believe yourself?
Well you probably do. No. I don't agree on the worlds part. I don't count U23 and in terms of who was the strongest at the elites it was 2-2, but WvA got lucky once, so it's 1-3

So... you ridicule my logic, just to apply the same logic the other way around and without solid reasoning behind it. Lol indeed. In your Dutch brain it's 2-2, because Van der Poels mechanical, but Van Aerts mechanical in 2015 doesn't count. And no, Van der Poel chose not to ride on the same tyres as Van Aert, because they were too slow. They knew Van Aert was going with those tyres and they ridiculed him for it. You can 't go back and claim he deserved to win that year because he was faster. Of course he was faster, because he used easy running tyres. Had Van Aert used different tyres, he would have been faster on the track as well (and had punctures).