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

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The provisional schedule uploaded to PCS only has one day races from now until the end of the season.

Druivenkoers-Overijse (24/08)
GP Wallonie (14/09)
Primus Classic (17/09)
World Championships RR (25/09)
Giro dell'Emilia (01/10)
Tre Valli Varesine (04/10)
Il Lombardia (08/10)
Seems to me like he understandably so got enough of stage races. Can't blame him on that one, since thats not really his strongest suit!
 
Guess there isn't any coverage of Izegem tomorrow. MVDP touring the "state fair" circuit to prep for Worlds. Still, my US dollars are on him to win come Australia. Like Bob Roll and Christian VDV, but they cracked me up yesterday when they said the only guys that would have taken Mads Peterson in that uphill finale in Spain yesterday were WVA and Laporte? For whatever reason the US commentators are all over JV's jock hook line and sinker. Look for MVDP set things straight at Worlds and wreck Wout and his sidekick Remco.
 
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Don't train/race with power myself (why pay an accountant to tell you that you are bankrupt), but things are trending in the right direction for MVDP. Starting to look at bit like his progression towards RVV. Folks forget that due to 3 disciplines, or more recently the back issue, the guy has literally never been able prep like a normal World Tour bike racer. Give him a little rest and he obviously is a "super responder" who could bury the competition here in a couple of weeks.
 
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Guess there isn't any coverage of Izegem tomorrow. MVDP touring the "state fair" circuit to prep for Worlds. Still, my US dollars are on him to win come Australia. Like Bob Roll and Christian VDV, but they cracked me up yesterday when they said the only guys that would have taken Mads Peterson in that uphill finale in Spain yesterday were WVA and Laporte? For whatever reason the US commentators are all over JV's jock hook line and sinker. Look for MVDP set things straight at Worlds and wreck Wout and his sidekick Remco.
Laporte has been freaky this year but that’s pretty funny. Would love to see MVDP at his best again and derail WVA from what seems an inevitable win if no bad luck.
 
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Yeah, exactly. Laporte has been "freaky" - just like everyone else on JV. That said, it seems like they went "full US Postal" for the TDF and maybe they've dialed back the "professionalism" a bit judging from their latest performances. Pretty funny that Wout can actually drop Pocagar on the deciding high mountain stage in the TDF, but can't beat him in a sprint on a hilly classic type race...
 
Yeah, exactly. Laporte has been "freaky" - just like everyone else on JV. That said, it seems like they went "full US Postal" for the TDF and maybe they've dialed back the "professionalism" a bit judging from their latest performances. Pretty funny that Wout can actually drop Pocagar on the deciding high mountain stage in the TDF, but can't beat him in a sprint on a hilly classic type race...
Because in the Tour when Wout dropped Pog, he parked his bike a couple of seconds later and Pog choose to ride his own tempo and eventually surpass Wout again. It's not like Wout came in second that day. He lost more than a minute on Pog still.

UAE also knew that if you make the race hard enough Wout doesn't have his sprint. His legs can't generate that power anymore while Pog can recover more quickly. It's not the first time Wout loses a flat sprint against someone he should win from in easier circumstances.
 
One never likes to write him off, but has he got enough hard racing kms in his legs since the Tour? I know there is his comeback in the Spring as an example, But can he do it again?

Same concern here. His MSR comeback was absolutely brilliant, but I can't see MVDP competing at this level just after a long break again. Top 10 finish more than possible, sure, but can't see him having a podium finish right now. Tomorrow's GP de Wallonie will be a small indicator though...
 
Same concern here. His MSR comeback was absolutely brilliant, but I can't see MVDP competing at this level just after a long break again. Top 10 finish more than possible, sure, but can't see him having a podium finish right now. Tomorrow's GP de Wallonie will be a small indicator though...

He will have to race smart and conservatively, and follow wheels if he wants to have anything left after 260 km. That's not how he races, and he risks missing the winning move, but it might be the best strategy. Interesting that Alaf is now on the start list. He's obviously someone else with questions about base fitness, but can't be counted out for obvious reasons.

I probably wouldn't have said this earlier but one of the top GC riders, either Pogi / Remco, are my favorites for the win. Sentimentally I am hoping for MvDP to school 'em all...my wild card is Fred Wright. (think he's competing, wright?)
 
Yeah, exactly. Laporte has been "freaky" - just like everyone else on JV. That said, it seems like they went "full US Postal" for the TDF and maybe they've dialed back the "professionalism" a bit judging from their latest performances. Pretty funny that Wout can actually drop Pocagar on the deciding high mountain stage in the TDF, but can't beat him in a sprint on a hilly classic type race...
The Wout of the Canadian races is definitely not the Wout we saw at the Tour this year. He went super deep during the Tour many, many days. Your form will definitely drop off after exploits like that from the physical and mental exhaustion.
 
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he also raced 2 kermesses. And you might think "aren't those fake races". No. Those were not post tdf crits.
These were actual belgian kermesses with some hard racing. He won them both, but obv the competition wasn't that high level. I think Lampaert was in one of them but in the other David van der Poel was 2nd.
 
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Because in the Tour when Wout dropped Pog, he parked his bike a couple of seconds later and Pog choose to ride his own tempo and eventually surpass Wout again. It's not like Wout came in second that day. He lost more than a minute on Pog still.

UAE also knew that if you make the race hard enough Wout doesn't have his sprint. His legs can't generate that power anymore while Pog can recover more quickly. It's not the first time Wout loses a flat sprint against someone he should win from in easier circumstances.
Yeah, parked his bike after being the break from the word go - after going deep in one way or another in pretty much every preceding stage. JV was a joke pretty much all season - at least up to the and through the TDF.
 
He will have to race smart and conservatively, and follow wheels if he wants to have anything left after 260 km. That's not how he races, and he risks missing the winning move, but it might be the best strategy. Interesting that Alaf is now on the start list. He's obviously someone else with questions about base fitness, but can't be counted out for obvious reasons.

I probably wouldn't have said this earlier but one of the top GC riders, either Pogi / Remco, are my favorites for the win. Sentimentally I am hoping for MvDP to school 'em all...my wild card is Fred Wright. (think he's competing, wright?)
Yeah, it's getting painful to keep seeing MVDP coming into Worlds in highly questionable form. Even more painful not to be able to watch him tear up the MTB circuit. Maybe a bit too much climbing in this year's WC course, but he would've obliterated everyone last year in Belgium if he was even close.
 
MVDP is flying. Has been focused only on prepping this race since he left TDF.

Unlike WvA he can polish off Pog easily at the end of a long race and usually gets the better of WvA when both are in good shape. In fact I think he totally psychs him out period.

He is my favorite to win.
Presumably you are referring to him dusting Pog at the end of Flanders. Evidently WvA isn't the only one MvdP can psych out, because Pog was clearly the strongest rider that day and, as we saw in Liege before and more recently in Montreal, Tadej can make a really good sprint at the end of a long, hard race.

It will be interesting to see whose got more left in the tank at the end of Worlds, while, as we have seen before in England, sometimes MvdP does run out of gas on these really long and demanding circuits. Then you have to wonder what having a Vuelta in his legs is going to mean for Remco. Will he be spent or flying? If the latter then between him and WvA, Belgium has two very dangerous cards to play and that's going to be a lot to handle for the other guys. Unfortunately, Evenepoel is also doing the TT and we saw where that left WvA after he challenged in the TT on the Leuven circuit. So it's risky for the road race.
 
I’m not sure the previous Worlds is a yardstick to judge his endurance by. The foul, cold & wet Yorkshire weather put paid to his any many other quality riders chances that day. IMO, he burned all his matches (in his first WC attempt) trying to ride others off his wheel and his inexperience showed. Pedersen & co managed it better. MvdP is incredible but I wouldn’t be the first to question his road race tactics (back in the day) which he’s since tuned and got 100% right at Flanders against Pog. I think he’s proved himself many other times on long courses in less inclement conditions.

His training leading up to these Worlds has been interesting though. 200K+ rides with lots of climbing a month back followed by 270K (7hr) stints with very little elevation gain of late. If his strava is accurate, the day he did won Izegem (08/09/2022) he rode 75K@44kph early morning, notching up a KOM, then circuit raced in the afternoon for 166K@48kph. I thought he looked a bit cooked in the last 15K with a few mediocre (for him) attacks.

I’ll be watching with interest today as he tackles GP Wallonie… come on MvdP!
 

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