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

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Axel Hangleck

Jan 7, 2017
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Coffeeplanter said:
I mean, if he decides to come in undercooked without any races again, he will come up short, again. He said he won't start XCO until after the Tour, which leaves just a singular world cup in August for him to attend, which won't do much positive for his starting position, despite fraudulent and corrupt Lappartient doing everything in his power to benefit Van der Poel in Glasgow.

If he wants to be serious about this, he comes to Nove Mesto in May.
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To be honest, if he was serious then he'd give the Tour a miss; he needs plenty of time training, and racing on the MTB to get back into the rhythm of XCO racing....
He's got the engine, we all know that - but that's not enough in XCO; he needs the skills sharpening again - that means racing on the MTB.
 
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Coffeeplanter

Jul 15, 2024
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Axel Hangleck said:
To be honest, if he was serious then he'd give the Tour a miss; he needs plenty of time training, and racing on the MTB to get back into the rhythm of XCO racing....
He's got the engine, we all know that - but that's not enough in XCO; he needs the skills sharpening again - that means racing on the MTB.
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He keeps talking about XCO gold being some sort of major career goal, yet is never willing to put in the effort and dedication. Very infuriating.
 
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Coffeeplanter

Jul 15, 2024
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jono said:
Never willing or never allowed?
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Willing. Even if he has some (contractual) obligation to give acte de presence in the Tour de France, there are plenty of opportunities year round to attend XCO World Cups that do not coincide with his spring goals, but he can't be bothered.

Meanwhile, Pidcock, more or less the same schedule, is out there riding Snowshoe and Mont-Saint-Anne.
 
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Barkintheeye

Barkintheeye

Feb 24, 2015
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Axel Hangleck said:
To be honest, if he was serious then he'd give the Tour a miss; he needs plenty of time training, and racing on the MTB to get back into the rhythm of XCO racing....
He's got the engine, we all know that - but that's not enough in XCO; he needs the skills sharpening again - that means racing on the MTB.
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Exactly that. Waltzing around in the Tour instead of doing focused MTB training sounds like a recipe for disaster. If he was the proven best MTB rider currently then maybe but instead he has proven that despite being the all time greatest CX rider, one of the ever best classics/1D riders and a generational talent he still has failed several times in MTB races. It just shows that transition to MTB takes time and effort.
 
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Axel Hangleck

Jan 7, 2017
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He's done it before, and in 2019 finally cracked it after a few years of honing the skills, getting experience. The result, 3 XCO, 5 XCC World Cup wins plus the European title - and a small Belgian stage race to warm up. The 'watt bomb' he dropped on Nino in Nove Mesto was memorable.

Coffeeplanter said:
Willing. Even if he has some (contractual) obligation to give acte de presence in the Tour de France, there are plenty of opportunities year round to attend XCO World Cups that do not coincide with his spring goals, but he can't be bothered.

Meanwhile, Pidcock, more or less the same schedule, is out there riding Snowshoe and Mont-Saint-Anne.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there are also non World Cup races he can do, if he wants. Pidcock has turned up at the Swiss Bike Cup, OEK Revolution series, French Cup, etc to get the feeling back on the MTB.
 
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gavia88

Oct 7, 2019
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well, I think he should go for green in the Tour this year. I doubt however, that he already looked good enough to the stages to know that he has a real change for it this year. Would be a 1 time opertunity for him as I not believe, there will be such a 'classic' riders tour soon again. But probaly he is only there to please sponser and help Philipsen.
 
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Berniece

Berniece

Sep 12, 2022
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gavia88 said:
well, I think he should go for green in the Tour this year. I doubt however, that he already looked good enough to the stages to know that he has a real change for it this year. Would be a 1 time opertunity for him as I not believe, there will be such a 'classic' riders tour soon again. But probaly he is only there to please sponser and help Philipsen.
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There are a couple of goals he wants to achieve before stopping, but I don't think the green jersey in the Tour is one of them. Apparently he doesn't care about getting the record in Flanders.

Road goals
  • Having worn the leaders jersey in the Vuelta, so he can say he has worn all 3
  • Gold medal in the Olympics (or in mountainbike)
Mountainbike goals
  • WC Mountainbike
  • Gold medal in the Olympics (or on the road)
  • Cape Epic
 
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KZD

KZD

Feb 21, 2019
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Its a very MVDP-like calendar, glad that at least he rides one stage race before the classics, would have liked to see him in Liège again but realistically doing better than last year seems near impossible.

Hope that he is in better shape for the Tour this time as he should have several stage win chances and opting for the MTB Worlds makes sense this year.
 
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hayneplane

Sep 4, 2017
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KZD said:
Its a very MVDP-like calendar, glad that at least he rides one stage race before the classics, would have liked to see him in Liège again but realistically doing better than last year seems near impossible.

Hope that he is in better shape for the Tour this time as he should have several stage win chances and opting for the MTB Worlds makes sense this year.
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It would be interesting to see what he could do the Mur De Huy if he did a lighter cobbled campaign than usual.
 
James M

James M

Jun 17, 2024
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KZD said:
Its a very MVDP-like calendar, glad that at least he rides one stage race before the classics, would have liked to see him in Liège again but realistically doing better than last year seems near impossible.

Hope that he is in better shape for the Tour this time as he should have several stage win chances and opting for the MTB Worlds makes sense this year.
Click to expand...
Looking forward to see him race again, few others are as pleasing to watch as him when he is in top form, truly special freaky specimen.

I woulda liked he included Strade more than Liege into his scheduled for my taste but got no problem with it overall. Will have alot of oppertunities this Tour aswell, should repeat or do better than 21 in terms of stagewins.
 
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Bolder

Jun 25, 2015
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KZD said:
Its a very MVDP-like calendar, glad that at least he rides one stage race before the classics, would have liked to see him in Liège again but realistically doing better than last year seems near impossible.

Hope that he is in better shape for the Tour this time as he should have several stage win chances and opting for the MTB Worlds makes sense this year.
Click to expand...
I would love to see him do a number of XCO/short track world cups. For some reason I don't really care how many PRs or Rondes he wins -- I just want to see him going thermonuclear in all different kinds of races, like his T-A suicide solo (which of course wrecked the rest of his spring pretty much...).
 
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Berniece

Berniece

Sep 12, 2022
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James M said:
Looking forward to see him race again, few others are as pleasing to watch as him when he is in top form, truly special freaky specimen.

I woulda liked he included Strade more than Liege into his scheduled for my taste but got no problem with it overall. Will have alot of oppertunities this Tour aswell, should repeat or do better than 21 in terms of stagewins.
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He won't be riding Strade as long as he goes for WC CX. It conflicts with his training schedule for the Spring classics. He also already destroyed everyone there, so not sure it matters that much to him.
 
C

Coffeeplanter

Jul 15, 2024
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tobydawq said:
He also knows he has no chance against Pogi.
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On the new course he has no shot, which is why the new course is dumb. The original route had the perfect mix of 80 kg classics men (Van Aert, Van der Poel) against the lightweights (Alaphilippe, Pogacar, Bernal, Pidcock) and decided nah, we don't want that. Let's add a ton of vertical meters and make it entirely predictable instead.

Stupidest f-ing decision in recent history, all because they want some arbitrary monument status that only fools care about.
 
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