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

[EddyMazzoleni]

Remco would ride away and MVP would lose the race.

Or maybe Pogi keeps Remco close to bridge the gap on OK and with the energy you save by not pulling you are able to keep his wheel when he attacks

 

[Red Rick]

Do you think any different course of action would have got him the win today?
If he wasn't going to be able to win, then why is securing himself second not the honourable, professional thing to do?

I think he could increase his chances by making better decisions.

He did not secure 2nd by pulling, the chance of losing to Evenepoel was neglible.

Where is the professionalism in making sabotaging your own chances?

Where is the honor in sabotaging your own chances?

"The strongest won so all is well" is cycling in it's least interesting form.

 

[Gigs_98]

Do you think any different course of action would have got him the win today?
If he wasn't going to be able to win, then why is securing himself second not the honourable, professional thing to do?

I definitely think he could have won. People are always talking about how enormous the difference in level between Pogacar and the field is but the difference in level between Pogacar and MvdP is not that enormous. Probably somewhat similar to the difference between prime Cancellara and his nearest competitors (although of course Cancellara had a few guys who were similarly far off, while Pogacar only has MvdP) yet we still treated the likes of GVA or Vanmarcke winning as realistic scenarios. I'm not convinced at all Pogacar can drop an MvdP on the last Kwaremont who has not put his nose in the air once.

 

[Red Rick]

I definitely think he could have won. People are always talking about how enormous the difference in level between Pogacar and the field is but the difference in level between Pogacar and MvdP is not that enormous. Probably somewhat similar to the difference between prime Cancellara and his nearest competitors (although of course Cancellara had a few guys who were similarly far off, while Pogacar only has MvdP) yet we still treated the likes of GVA or Vanmarcke winning as realistic scenarios. I'm not convinced at all Pogacar can drop an MvdP on the last Kwaremont who has not put his nose in the air once.

Or making a significant positioning error on the 2nd Kwaremont that leads to him having to beat the record to even get back to the wheel.

 

[canina82]

I definitely think he could have won. People are always talking about how enormous the difference in level between Pogacar and the field is but the difference in level between Pogacar and MvdP is not that enormous. Probably somewhat similar to the difference between prime Cancellara and his nearest competitors (although of course Cancellara had a few guys who were similarly far off, while Pogacar only has MvdP) yet we still treated the likes of GVA or Vanmarcke winning as realistic scenarios. I'm not convinced at all Pogacar can drop an MvdP on the last Kwaremont who has not put his nose in the air once.

If he doesn't work at all, he would increase Remco's chances of winning, not his chances.

 

[AmRacer]

If he doesn't work at all, he would increase Remco's chances of winning, not his chances.

Mathieu would win a 3-way sprint against Pogi and Remco 9 times out of 10.

 

[TrekCyclist]

For me a scenario where MVDP does not work with Pogacar, but Evenepoel rides away from both- That seems less likely than Pogacar closing the gap and MVDP wins the sprint. Or Pogacar first rides away from MVDP and then from Evenepoel. But overall better odds for MVDP than with what he was doing yesterday.