- Mar 13, 2009
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- May 9, 2014
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Apparently his team did have an invite for Paris Roubaix and MVP said no to PR, after which ASO withdrew the invite?
Anyone know if that's true?
Anyone know if that's true?
Re:
I thought this was common knowledge. They got an invite but had already planned out Mathieu's spring season and PR just wasn't a part of it with the Ardennes Classics in mind. Shame when you see his RVV form, but Mathieu seems Ok with it though as he'd rather show off his national jersey in his country. He's just gonna have to win it next year
PremierAndrew said:
I thought this was common knowledge. They got an invite but had already planned out Mathieu's spring season and PR just wasn't a part of it with the Ardennes Classics in mind. Shame when you see his RVV form, but Mathieu seems Ok with it though as he'd rather show off his national jersey in his country. He's just gonna have to win it next year
What a massively impressive win today. Worst position for the sprint and dropped them all and even sat up, looked back wondering where the rest were. Attacked, responded, bridged, did it all today and still won so easily. Seems like he can do it all. Cobbles, Ardennes... The next Gilbert?
- Mar 13, 2009
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He's incomparable. Also I noticed he prefers to create a selection and then win the sprint, rather then go for risky solo's. Which is logical.
But the confidence in his sprint is insane. You'd think with Alaphilippe and Matthews you might second guess yourself but no... And they had no chance to his initial acceleration
But the confidence in his sprint is insane. You'd think with Alaphilippe and Matthews you might second guess yourself but no... And they had no chance to his initial acceleration
Re: Re:
Doesn't seem like it has to be mutually exclusive. Mathieu came off a whole CX season which he completely dominated and is still beating the top riders in the peloton and racing at this insane level. Maybe it's not sustainable on the long-run but Mathieu likes the variety. He tends to get bored easily and out of every cycling discipline I think he dislikes road racing the most simply because he gets bored during the first hundred km's where there's no action. Especially nowadays riders seem to want to wait till the very end before there's any type of fireworks. This explains why he often attacks early to try and force a shifting.
Many people disapprove of his attacking style, and I'm sure his team managers would rather him conserve his energies. However they realize that if they try to "contain" him he will get bored and lose interest. So they just let him do his thing and it seems to be working fine up to this point. I'm convinced he would have probably been able to go with Bettiol in de Ronde when he went and post likely beat him in the sprint... Imagine that for a second, and put all of his other results this spring season next to each other. It's insane.
Keram said:
Doesn't seem like it has to be mutually exclusive. Mathieu came off a whole CX season which he completely dominated and is still beating the top riders in the peloton and racing at this insane level. Maybe it's not sustainable on the long-run but Mathieu likes the variety. He tends to get bored easily and out of every cycling discipline I think he dislikes road racing the most simply because he gets bored during the first hundred km's where there's no action. Especially nowadays riders seem to want to wait till the very end before there's any type of fireworks. This explains why he often attacks early to try and force a shifting.
Many people disapprove of his attacking style, and I'm sure his team managers would rather him conserve his energies. However they realize that if they try to "contain" him he will get bored and lose interest. So they just let him do his thing and it seems to be working fine up to this point. I'm convinced he would have probably been able to go with Bettiol in de Ronde when he went and post likely beat him in the sprint... Imagine that for a second, and put all of his other results this spring season next to each other. It's insane.
- Jun 29, 2015
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Imagine if he had a strong team around him. Scary. If he keeps developing, I’m not sure there will be race he can’t win.
- Jun 7, 2011
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I can't think of any rider ever, that was like him. I mean, the same type of rider. And for these types of races, probably the biggest Dutch talent in decades, if not ever.
- Nov 7, 2010
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Re:
Amstel is like the Sanremo of hilly classics; so difficult to control and win, makes it very hard, especially for a rider with a team as weak as Poel.
I'm not sure about that. 250km,with way more high intensity climbing than in BP, is a different ball game.Koronin said:
Amstel is like the Sanremo of hilly classics; so difficult to control and win, makes it very hard, especially for a rider with a team as weak as Poel.
Re: Re:
That's what they said about Mathieu as well when he won DDV and did extremely well in GW: "Tour of Flanders is a whole different ball game due to *insert x reason*". We all know what happened in de Ronde, with better luck (or judgement) he could have even won it. We'll see if this holds true for Amstel as well. All I'm saying is, he has proven that he can be up there with the very best riders in the most difficult races and win, or at least come very close.
DFA123 said:
That's what they said about Mathieu as well when he won DDV and did extremely well in GW: "Tour of Flanders is a whole different ball game due to *insert x reason*". We all know what happened in de Ronde, with better luck (or judgement) he could have even won it. We'll see if this holds true for Amstel as well. All I'm saying is, he has proven that he can be up there with the very best riders in the most difficult races and win, or at least come very close.
- Apr 15, 2014
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I'm curious if he can take on the longer climbs. In CX, he prefers the short, explosive climbs.
But with his confidence sky-high, it wouldn't surprise me if he did well again.
But with his confidence sky-high, it wouldn't surprise me if he did well again.
- Mar 13, 2009
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I don't think the distance is any issue, you cannot possibly claim that anymore after GW/RVV.
Luck is an issue. You can't control a race like Amstel in the final. At a certain point favorites look at eachother and then when a rider slips away who is going to close? He can't close all gaps. He'll be in the 'Sagan' position... trapped or forced to react to everything
Luck is an issue. You can't control a race like Amstel in the final. At a certain point favorites look at eachother and then when a rider slips away who is going to close? He can't close all gaps. He'll be in the 'Sagan' position... trapped or forced to react to everything
- Jun 7, 2011
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You can joke about his team, but both in RVV and GW his team was stronger than CCC and more useful than Jumbo in RVV and PB.
- Nov 12, 2010
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