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

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Put those riders who are hours ahead of MvdP in a CX, or XC MTB World Cup season, and see how good they are. They'd be lapped every race - doesn't make them poor riders, it's not what they are. Similarly, MvdP is a big guy, he can't possibly beat 'skinny little climbers' on GC.

He's the only current rider with World Tour road wins, CX World Cup, XCO & XCC World Cup wins.....
Of course, but there is a hierarchy of the sport and World Tour road comes first for a reason. Put 99% of cross guys in the World Tour and they won't be competative. With practice and committment I don't think the case is the same in the reverse.
 
Yawn. Who says so? This keeps getting repeated as though it's fact. It's the same as saying F1 drivers are the best in motorsport - they're not. Both may be the biggest/ most popular discipline, but that's it.
Ok, let's put the WT in a cross season for a year (with proper prepartation) and then the cross group in the WT for a year (with proper preparation) and see who fairs better. It's like the classics versus GT argument. For stupidity sake, let's do a season of only classics and then one of only GTs and then see who fairs better. De Vlaeminck was a cross champion, but Hinault was not bad on the dirt. But in comparison, De Vlaeminck was a child compared to Hinault in the overall scheme of things. It's like apples to oranges. I realize this will piss some people off.

The Formula 1 comparison is ridiculous, as we are talking about human motors.
 
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he is even saving for it he said. And in this TT field? Likely...

Yates is gone. Dumo is gone. Almeida is gone. The hill makes it difficult for tt specialists like Affini. He beat Sobrero before. I think VDP can do it on a good day. But ofcourse there is always a chance someone else is quicker.
I think only Sobrero can beat him.

This one is definitely less explosive, which isn't good for MvdP
 
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Mathieu van der Poel: "They say you get stronger from a Grand Tour, so I'll do two right away"

During his almost completed three-week Giro journey of discovery, Mathieu van der Poel left an indelible impression, again today. In the crowd, in the peloton and he even amazes his own coach. “I'm actually getting better and better. I feel even better than the first week.”

Stage winner, rose jersey wearer, time trialist, sprinter, sportivey loser, attacker, climber and joker. In three weeks of the Giro, Mathieu van der Poel played the leading role in various guises. He rode his first complete Grand Tour 'on his Van der Poels'. With his attacking spirit and balancing on only his rear wheel riding uphill, he turned the heads of the Italians. Only to leave them stunned with a joke about pineapple on his pizza. With Verona in sight, AD Sportwereld joined for an interview.

Do you like it in the third week?

"Yeah, I still feel really good."

Italy has fallen in love with you. ,,

And I with Italy. But I've been that way for a long time. I have always loved coming to Livigno to train at altitude. On Wednesday we passed Val di Sole, where I rode mountain bike world cups. And we also went up the Mortirolo, a climb I regularly do when I'm in Livigno. So it is a somewhat well-known region, but I have always found Italy to be a very beautiful country."

How can you stay so relaxed in a grand tour? It remains playful and frivolous, but it can't be that you don't feel anything after three weeks, can it?

,,I'm having a good time. And what I say, I keep feeling good. That's important too. My preparation was very short of course. I'm actually getting better and better. I feel even better than I felt that first week. I am very satisfied with that.”

Do you remember how that first week went?

,
,I said it yesterday: 'Hungary, that seems like it was a different race.' You experience a grand tour in your own bubble. You get very little from the rest of the world, but it does have its charms. And we were really lucky with the weather this year. Or bad luck, it just depends on how you look at it."

In that bad weather on Wednesday, your team was almost late at the start. It was raining terribly, but I understood that you sat in the bus rubbing your hands, and then led the way all day in a very difficult mountain stage.

,,I've been looking forward to a day like Wednesday for a long time. That it was slightly less in terms of temperature, because until then it had been really hot. I was really happy with that rain. I can handle rain and a little colder weather just a little better than really hot weather.”

That mountain stage was not a test. You wanted to win.

,,Yes of course. I'm trying to win that stage. I played a bit of all or nothing on that last climb. But I felt it wasn't going to work. When you see that even Gijs Leemreize does not win in the end. And he rode impressively."

What were your thoughts on that last climb?

,,Not much. Just go as fast as I can. I didn't think I would survive that penultimate climb. I hoped that Gijs would really break and that I would have grown wings. That day was a real highlight for me. And of course that was the start of the Giro. Actually I went to the Giro with the big goal of getting that pink and I succeeded. Then I lost that jersey. I knew that would happen, but I still had to pull myself together or something. That's a bit like after a classic, some decompression after. But that's difficult in a Grand Tour. There's no time for that. Then I finish second in that time trial and once second behind Girmay. He was really good that day. We knew he was fast and they were well represented as a team, they just did that very well."

Another time trial tomorrow.

,,It's a bit of seeing how I feel. I don't know if that time trial in Hungary is a comparison. That was to defend a jersey and on a track that suited me 100 percent. But if I feel good, and time trials always hurt, then I'll go for it."

And then it's over. Then you have ridden three weeks in a row, for the first time a complete Grand Tour.

“That was the plan anyway. The perception was a bit that I couldn't finish a grand tour, when I had only done one with last year's Tour. And that only happened because I was focussing on the Olympics MTB race which was straight after."
 
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P.S. I am getting some sort of a goats vibes from the Pinot thread.
 

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