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

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I still think we'll see him in a few classics

And you're right, pretty much the same road program as last year but with Paris Roubaix added.

I still hope for an invite to MSR but it's likely not happening

 

[del1962]

I don't see any reason to not invite his team to MSR

 

[Cinemaniak]

I don't see any reason to not invite his team to MSR

I see a couple of Italian reasons (teams)

 

[shalgo]

19th at the Primus Classic--only the second time he has finished outside the top 4 in a one-day road race since June 2017. Clearly he is out of form for the World Championships!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Van der Poel: ’Dumoulin heeft het ook bewezen’

Mathieu van der Poel is iemand die de lat steeds hoger legt voor zichzelf. Hoewel een klassement in een grote ronde nu niet aan de orde is, sluit hij dat in de toekomst niet uit.

www.telegraaf.nl

that's interesting, says he wants to ride the Vuelta after the olympics already next year. And then the TDF in 2021.
No interest in GC because he's simply too heavy. Doesn't say it's totally excluded from the future but deems it unlikely (thank god, who wants to be another boring gc rider)

 

[Mayomaniac]

I see a couple of Italian reasons (teams)

RCS pretty much invite everyone, if he sponsor is willing to sonsor the race, like NN and Cofidis did with MSR.
That said, I'm pretty confident that they could get a Strade Bianche wildcard, if they want it.

 

[Red Rick]

Van der Poel: ’Dumoulin heeft het ook bewezen’

Mathieu van der Poel is iemand die de lat steeds hoger legt voor zichzelf. Hoewel een klassement in een grote ronde nu niet aan de orde is, sluit hij dat in de toekomst niet uit.

www.telegraaf.nl

that's interesting, says he wants to ride the Vuelta after the olympics already next year. And then the TDF in 2021.
No interest in GC because he's simply too heavy. Doesn't say it's totally excluded from the future but deems it unlikely (thank god, who wants to be another boring gc rider)

Imagine Vuelta sprint stages generally suit him more than the other GT sprints.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Tomorrow MVP will start his quest for triple glory: road world champion, cyclo-cross world champion and mountain bike Olympic champion within a year.
Let's see if the phenom can accomplish this unbelievable feat.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

It won't be easy. He's the most marked man and there's 100 scenario's where it could go wrong. If he stays healthy and doesn't miss a crucial move he's gonna be right up there

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

It won't be easy. He's the most marked man and there's 100 scenario's where it could go wrong. If he stays healthy and doesn't miss a crucial move he's gonna be right up there

Especially the local laps are tailormade for him, imho.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Imagine Vuelta sprint stages generally suit him more than the other GT sprints.

Vuelta sprints suits every sprinter better since the competition is garbage.

 

[Koronin]

Not sure his team will get a Vuelta invite, which could be problematic for him racing la Vuelta with his current team.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Idk, so far his team gets an invite everywhere they requested it.

Because of Mathieu...

 

[Anderis]

But the situation with the Vuelta is vastly different. So far his team was only getting invititations to WT one-day races and not WT stage races. It's a big difference because one-day races have 7 wild card spots and stage races have only 4. What's more, 2020 WT is likely to have more than 18 teams, which means there will be even fewer wild card spots. If Vuelta organisers have only 2 or 3 wild cards to give, you may be pretty much sure they'll all go to Cofidis and/or Spanish teams. Van der Poel is not a GC contender and his team does not have any other rider who would be of any significant sporting value at a race like Vuelta (unless some kind of unexpected breakthrough, of course). It's a completely different story than getting one of the 7 wild cars to a classic of which VdP is one of the biggest favourites to win.

I can't really see Corendon getting 2020 Vuelta invite as things stand right now.,, unless we have fewer than 20 WT teams so they can get automatic invitation for being top1-2 PCT team in the rankings? Can they pull it off?

 

[42x16ss]

He's going to look at today as a learning experience

 

[Red Rick]

He's going to look at today as a learning experience

Dunno. I think he's at least one of really arrogant and not really smart and I lean towards the latter.

He's made some unfathomable tactical decisions this year

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

As weird as it may sound he rode a strong race. Perfect up to the point he had nothing left because he probably forgot to eat.

Classic lesson.
I had a hunger knock only once, and I remember I couldn't pedal at all, like 15km/h was painful. I can't imagine what a hunger knock after 250km feels like. Probably worse. Poor dude. Lesson learned

 

[SantiBotero]

H

As weird as it may sound he rode a strong race. Perfect up to the point he had nothing left because he probably forgot to eat.

Classic lesson.
I had a hunger knock only once, and I remember I couldn't pedal at all, like 15km/h was painful. I can't imagine what a hunger knock after 250km feels like. Probably worse. Poor dude. Lesson learned

Agree, for sure a hunger knock. He still was the best and his move was 100% decisive for the outcome of the race.

 

[Bolder]

I think it was just a classic bonk. Even he seemed a bit surprised.

Going when he did and with whom was a good choice. He eliminated every other supposed favorite except Trentin. Just came up a little short.

And, the guy had like 8 peaks this year.

 

[Red Rick]

The attack was really smart cause Teunissen was dropping. After he got away with Trentin, Moscon, Kung and Pedersen he did waaayyyyy too much work.

THat's not to say he wouldn't bonk if he did less, he'd still bonk, but it was a very basic tactical mistake in my opinion.

He's way too used to go like 'lol my legs are legendary guess I'll win now'

 

[movingtarget]

Probably a bit of overconfidence and lack of experience with such a long race. Don't think it was just a bonk from lack of food. He was really pushing hard in that group.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

VD Poel always rides like that, same in MTB, CX, road. Look at Dwars and Brabantse Pijl. He'll keep working and then drop them dead on the last sprint.,

The joke being this time he dropped himself basically.

 

[Red Rick]

VD Poel always rides like that, same in MTB, CX, road. Look at Dwars and Brabantse Pijl. He'll keep working and then drop them dead on the last sprint.,

The joke being this time he dropped himself basically.

My favorite one is still "I guess I'll start the Oude Kwaremont in the back cause it's not important right now to sit in the front"

 

[Pantani_lives]

Well, he has been riding to win everywhere all season, in cross, in MTB and on the road, even in the preparation races. It worked in Dwars dV, it worked in the AGR. Today the race was one lap too long. If you race like that all the time you're bound to hit a wall at one point. He still had an impressive season.

 

[tobydawq]

Well, he has been riding to win everywhere all season, in cross, in MTB and on the road, even in the preparation races. It worked in Dwars dV, it worked in the AGR. Today the race was one lap too long. If you race like that all the time you're bound to hit a wall at one point. He still had an impressive season.

Sorry, but that seems like a rather easy thing to say after the fact.

I don't know that he was bound to hit the wall like that today.