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

[Berniece]

Wielerflits calls E3 certain and that he probably chooses either GW or DvV. Makes sense cause he absolutely adores that race and sees it as the best prep for RvV.

That's true, and mostly likely to win that one out of those 3

 

[Berniece]

Skipping Strade and Road Worlds to avoid beatings from Pog on terrain more favoured to Pog. He should be there in Rwanda just as Pogacar showed up in Glasgow.

He should also just go for Lombardia while he's at it

 

[Peyroteo94]

Skipping Strade and Road Worlds to avoid beatings from Pog on terrain more favoured to Pog. He should be there in Rwanda just as Pogacar showed up in Glasgow.

I have a feeling (withou any crashes) his road season will not be good compared to last 2 years.

 

[jono]

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.

Never willing or never allowed?

 

[Wvv]

Would like to see MVDP win the mountainbike rainbow jersey. And he can leave the cobbled classics to Wout for once (but there is that Slovalien...).

A whole nation would go into mourning.

Tbh, Roger is respected for his legacy and palmares, but few people 'like' the man. Even in Belgium. The majority wished for Boonen to break his Monsieur Paris-Roubaix spell.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

Never willing or never allowed?

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.

 

[Barkintheeye]

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.

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.

 

[Berniece]

Would like to see MVDP win the mountainbike rainbow jersey. And he can leave the cobbled classics to Wout for once (but there is that Slovalien...).

What's MVDP going to do during spring then? Most races are in May/June, right?

 

[Axel Hangleck]

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.

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.

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.

 

[gavia88]

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.

 

[Berniece]

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.

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

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Cape Epic would be interesting; the choice of team mate is important - we've seen Nino burn team mates out year after year, leaving them destroyed the rest of the season. Teaming up with Sam Gaze would be something.....

 

[KZD]

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.

 

[hayneplane]

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.

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]

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.

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.

 

[KZD]

It would be interesting to see what he could do the Mur De Huy if he did a lighter cobbled campaign than usual.

I would like to see him there too but more than having a lighter cobbled campaign, he would need to be a couple of kilos lighter similar to the bodytype he had back in 2018/2019.

 

[Bolder]

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.

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...).

 

[Berniece]

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.

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.

 

[tobydawq]

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.

He also knows he has no chance against Pogi.

 

[topcat]

He also knows he has no chance against Pogi.

Strade is a fine race but it's no Milan San Remo.

 

[Berniece]

He also knows he has no chance against Pogi.

He already beat him once there. Don't think he remotely thinks about doing races depending on the opposition.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

He also knows he has no chance against Pogi.

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.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

He already beat him once there. Don't think he remotely thinks about doing races depending on the opposition.

He beat him on the old course. Van der Poel has about a 0.7% chance of beating him on the new course.

 

[Berniece]

He beat him on the old course. Van der Poel has about a 0.7% chance of beating him on the new course.

Already forgot they added ~600m of altitude. I agree that it would probably be too hard. Even more reason not to participate, just like he doesn't do Lombardia although that's much more.

 

[Barkintheeye]

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.

Yes, sometimes more is just... less