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

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Hmm, perhaps not but he hasn't done many races this season, and LBL should be a big and realistic goal for him. It's not like he has to burn himself out everyday of the Giro anyway.
He has a too small base for that. He basically got ready for Flanders but you could see in Roubaix already the best legs were far gone.
So he could ride in LBL but do absolutely nothing then. Wiser to have some rest, then another training camp + giro
 
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Because he has looked completely dead lately, hes doing a GT double and Liege doesnt suit him well anyways. I think its a pretty obvious choice
He has won half the one day races he's done the last month, and finished in the top 10 in all of them. He might not be in peak shape, but he's certainly not "completely dead". And I think Liege suits him very well. He was 6th the one time he rode it - the day after he completed a 70 km solo. In peak shape he would be one of the top favorites.

Anyway, I had just imagined him prolonging his spring campaign with Fleche Wallone and Liege since he missed the first part of it, but he's probably not feeling great since he's not doing that.
 
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Yes, relatively speaking of course. VDP-standards. Rarely have we seen him so passive, not realling doing much at all, and thats not really his racing style. Hes visibly not at his best, so why would he ever ride Liege?
I'd agree. Given his highly compressed prep, he had a helluva spring and got actual results with DVV and RVV wins. The guy literally didn't start riding the bike until early Feb. To collect another RVV was massive under the circumstances. He was clearly done at AG and PR. At full strength he absolutely dominates a PR where he literally had no bad luck and all the other real contenders (WVA for example did).
 
Having said that, I wonder how much this is A-F wanting to get MvdP airtime. Hope they're not stretching him too far for media purposes.

If he has the goal of having a leader jersey in all GTs (which he should have given his skills), he won't have much better opportunities than this year as usually we have pancake flat sprint stages or short ITTs/TTTs to open the giro with hard hilly or MTF stages in the first stages. It's not usual to open with a puncheur sprint stage followed by a ITT which should give him some room to defend the jersey (or even win) with the short distance of the TT and the final climb.

With an italian major sponsor on board (which, I suspect, may only be giving name to the team until the end of this or next year, as I'm confident we will have a Alpecin - Deceuninck in the future) it makes sense.
 
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I doubt there are much races "too hilly" for VDP, considering he was 6th in LBL. Lombardia yeah, but that's not even a hilly race.

Although I will say. Even more for flat/cobbled races, VDP would need top form in especially very hilly races
With the form he had at the Tour de Swiss and then the TDF last year he could definitely win LBL. Recall the stage at Swiss where he made it over that last climb and then just pulverized everyone in the sprint. Stage 2 at the TDF speaks for itself - tracking down Quintana first, then Cobrelli , and then the "like he was shot out of cannon" stuff only MVDP can pull off. He was clearly on a mission that day.
 
I doubt there are much races "too hilly" for VDP, considering he was 6th in LBL. Lombardia yeah, but that's not even a hilly race.

Although I will say. Even more for flat/cobbled races, VDP would need top form in especially very hilly races
He can't survive 2-3 km murito-styled climbs. I'd give Wout a much better chance at those.

But I'm not sure if you count them as hills or mountains.
 
I suggest rewatching Tirreno 2021 Murito stage where he solo'd for 50km.

A top form VDP can handle a lot more than you'd think. Except actual climbing
I think the repetitions, cautious chase behind and dogshit weather helped him a lot in that stage.

In a more WCRR style race, where everyone waits for the final 2 laps, and a 2km 6 minute climb at over 10% where it's pretty pure W/kg testing MvdP doesn't have a chance in the world.

Van der Poel specifically skipped Imola cause it was too hard for him. That hill had 1km at 11%.
 
I think the repetitions, cautious chase behind and dogshit weather helped him a lot in that stage.

In a more WCRR style race, where everyone waits for the final 2 laps, and a 2km 6 minute climb at over 10% where it's pretty pure W/kg testing MvdP doesn't have a chance in the world.

Van der Poel specifically skipped Imola cause it was too hard for him. That hill had 1km at 11%.

And you don't think that was a wrong decision? This year they almost threw a possible MSR win out of the window because he "probably wouldn't be competitive anyway" and only started him because other riders on the team got sick.

If he can get 6th in Liège the day after riding 50+ kms solo in an epic effort to win the Binckbank Tour, he can probably win it with a more quiet few days before.
 
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And you don't think that was a wrong decision? This year they almost threw a possible MSR win out of the window because he "probably wouldn't be competitive anyway" and only started him because other riders on the team got sick.

If he can get 6th in Liège the day after riding 50+ kms solo in an epic effort to win the Binckbank Tour, he can probably win it with a more quiet few days before.
He could have been on the podium in Imola. But he wasn't going to follow Alaphilippe anymore than any of the others could. In retrospect, he might not care to finish 2nd or 3rd, so i could understand he himself might still not think that was a bad decision, but i think anyone else would agree he should have been there.
 
And you don't think that was a wrong decision? This year they almost threw a possible MSR win out of the window because he "probably wouldn't be competitive anyway" and only started him because other riders on the team got sick.

If he can get 6th in Liège the day after riding 50+ kms solo in an epic effort to win the Binckbank Tour, he can probably win it with a more quiet few days before.
Not really. I think he probably gets into the 2nd group after Alaphilippe and wins the sprint of that group for like 7th?

Depends on whether you think not getting that is a mistake or not.
 

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