• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

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

Page 36 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
He has the least race days of all top favorites, even if you include his MTB and CX season.

He knows when to rest. That was never the issue. He just bonked, period. He also said he never experienced this before so it was totally new for him that this could happen. Ofcourse in a 1h CX race or a 1h30 MTB race you don't bonk easily.
All it took was a 6h30 races in horrible conditions. Were many top starts faded/failed as well.
 
Yeah, the weird thing was he wasn't skipping pulls beforehand. It's almost like he took his pull, went to the back and then was just suddenly done. I wish there was more footage of the moments right before. I rewound to see but the camera was off the group for a bit before that.
 
He has the least race days of all top favorites, even if you include his MTB and CX season.

He knows when to rest. That was never the issue. He just bonked, period. He also said he never experienced this before so it was totally new for him that this could happen. Ofcourse in a 1h CX race or a 1h30 MTB race you don't bonk easily.
All it took was a 6h30 races in horrible conditions. Were many top starts faded/failed as well.
It was certainly remarkable what happened. We should keep track of the races where he eventually cracks so maybe we can predict it more accurately in the future: 6h30 mark, bad conditions ;)

Oh well. Human after all. He'll be back.
 
Maybe its like 5 year old me being astounded the fastest 100m runners couldnt win marathons cause that just the same thing but for longer.

Every riders beem there but VdP is just used to going balls deep and not paying the price
Yeah for a moment I was kinda happy even VdP could experience once in his life what I feel almost every time I ride my bike for more than 3 hours.
Then I remembered he's in my CQ team.

Phenomenal season nevertheless. Can't wait for next year spring campaign to start.
 
Yeah for a moment I was kinda happy even VdP could experience once in his life what I feel almost every time I ride my bike for more than 3 hours.
Then I remembered he's in my CQ team.

Phenomenal season nevertheless. Can't wait for next year spring campaign to start.
His old man and grandfather will set him straight. VDP will come back next year wiser and hungrier, and the reign of terror will continue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Axel Hangleck
He says he was taking on food & liquid; but maybe in that weather you need a lot more? The combination of awful weather, distance, not enough fuel = a sudden massive power outage. Last years Europeans were similar conditions, but probably not as cold. He'll be back, and wiser when racing in similar conditions.
Having said that, he gambled and for 95% of the race it looked good. He gave up a virtually guaranteed medal (if that's ever possible - and possibly a Gold) in the MTB Worlds for a Worlds route that looked ideal.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose..it happens - even to Mathieu.

Will be interesting to see if/ how he gets on the in the Tokyo MTB trial event.
 
I actually think he probably had a bit of hypothermia. He says he ate and drank enough but could not get warm. I wonder if a spot of hot tea or even hot cocoa from the team car would have helped.
This was actually my guess as well. He's smart and experienced enough to eat, and if he says he did, i see no reason to doubt that. He's used to riding in this kind of weather for an hour. Not 6 or 7. Nobody is, and people react to it differently regardless of where they were born. Evenepoel said after the race, that riding in the rain wasn't that big a deal, but it was when really going deep, that he felt the weather affected his effort a lot. And after his pull, he was done. Coming from a guy who's made his trademark out of insanely long solo's, that's a remarkable thing to say, since he had only pulled the 2nd group for about 15k (otherwise a "short" effort in his book).

The thing is that he didn't fade away. It's like his body simply said "aaaand we're done here". I don't know if hypothermia works like that. It's also possible that his body was simply needing a lot more energy than he assumed it would, because of the bad wheather, and while he though he ate plenty, maybe it simply wasn't in these conditions (again, since he lacks that experience).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Axel Hangleck
I've had something similar happen at ~250km into a ride. I'd been eating and drinking well and even had stopped off for rests etc. Was skipping up climbs compared to the people I was riding with, loads of work on the front etc.

I knew I needed to eat so got some food out and just couldn't eat it. I was hungry but it felt like my stomach was still full, very weird but meant I completely bonked and just had to sit in the wheels for the last few km. We stopped for more food but I still couldn't take anything on, was hard enough to drink some water. I got the train back, crawled home, got showered and about 2 hours later could eat fine.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Axel Hangleck
From his comments it does sound like a hunger knock to me. His comments on the CN article state that he felt dizzy and empty when he dropped. He said he felt fine again in the last few km's, which in case of hypothermia seems highly unlikely. Probably his body had time to process some of the sugar he had ingested previously to restore the feeling of normality in those final K's.

It's a shame, but you live and learn. It's extremely difficult to get right in this kind of weather to stay warm and well fueled.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bolder
https://www.nu.nl/wielrennen/600167...-weinig-heeft-gegeten-en-gedronken-op-wk.html

In short, in hindsight he realized he did have the hunger knock. He said he probably did not eat enough during the local laps. He also said normally you feel a hunger knock coming, but this time he didn't at all. Probably because of the cold.
He said 5 minutes before the moment he felt super..it was so sudden it was surprising
 
  • Like
Reactions: Axel Hangleck
https://www.nu.nl/wielrennen/600167...-weinig-heeft-gegeten-en-gedronken-op-wk.html

In short, in hindsight he realized he did have the hunger knock. He said he probably did not eat enough during the local laps. He also said normally you feel a hunger knock coming, but this time he didn't at all. Probably because of the cold.
He said 5 minutes before the moment he felt super..it was so sudden it was surprising

Well, it was probably a combination. Because of the cold the body uses more energy for generating heat so even though you eat and drink like you normally would, you can still go empty. I wouldn’t be too hard on him, often you have to learn these kind of things by trial and error.
 
Ok, his race ended a bit more subdued than you would think based on my comments. He seemed to be struggling when the peloton caught him after his long day out but he still had it in him to win the bunch sprint - unfortunately only for sixth.

I think he underestimated his competition a bit.
 

TRENDING THREADS