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

[Berniece]

What?

Pogacar was managing that time to keep Van der Poel with him

Sure…

 

[Coppi-Bartali]

Sure…

Sure is to say that he was going to close the gap, just like in the World Championship, in Lombardy, in the European Championship....
Keep believing in unicorns. We've seen 100 races that he has never closed the gap.

 

[Berniece]

Sure is to say that he was going to close the gap

He literally came to around 20-30m... After already chasing for 10-20km's... When he wasn't being motopaced and he was alone. But sure, he wouldn't have closed those last few meters...

 

[Coppi-Bartali]

There's no point in arguing further about evidence we've already seen tepeatedly. The gap has only been closed in Amstel ; it never has been in any other instance.

I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't believe if you deny something tangible.

 

[canina82]

I don't know if I'm in the thread Gerrans´ thread or in the thread of a cyclist of Vito Braet's level. Van der Poel, triple winner of Flanders and Roubaix.

I don't remember a single chase where Evenepoel has closed the gap on Pogacar. Only at Amstel Gold Race because Pogacar was coocked; in the other 126748 races, never.
The conviction that Evenepoel will catch him on the flat in a 278 kilometer road race is as much of a myth as a unicorn.

Van der Poel climbed the final pass of the Kwaremont second fastest; Remco was fourteenth, 25 seconds lower than MVDP. That's a huge loss againts Pogacar.
Some even say that Van der Poel should have stopped and waited. That's a stupid idea that would only have resulted in losing more time.

Van der Poel's turns were very lazy. He wasn't putting in any effort, and they were closing the gap behind him when VDP pulled.

Like with Pidcock, there are also tactical gurus who say that Pidcock shouldn't have gone with Pogacar. Pidcock was one sprint away from winning MSR, a very high probability, but it seems that a sprint against 20 fast men like Pedersen, Trentin or Van Aert would have been better.

Great post. Anyone who followed this race carefully, saw Remco losing time on cobbled bergs quite consistently. In the last Kwaremont, he lost 31" to Pogacar and 25" to MVP. In Koppenberg, another 10-12". And even on Mariaborrestraat, he lost 6 or 7" to Pogacar. I heard about motos but it is quite obvious Remco was on the limit and for that reason he could not close a 2-3" gap, this has nothing to do with motos.
Despite his impressive 3rd place, the way he rode on the cobbles was kinda bad and not bothers well for a future participation in PR. To those who think MVP should wait for Remco, I agree however if he was dropped somewhere by Pogacar, I'm pretty sure Remco wouldn't save him at all because he was clearly worse in Kwaremont+Paterberg.