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

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Feb 20, 2012
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But there is still 2 more hills in the circuit. Something like 500-600m at 6%. This where Pogacar can build his gap after going solo on the main hill. I still think MVP can be in the top10 but fighting for the win is out of reach. We are talking about MVP, no chance he will race it if he doesn't think he can compete there.
I didnt say he could win. I think the parcours is good enough for him to possibly beat everyone else than Pogacar and maybe Evenepoel.

Maybe Pidcock on a super day is also better
 
Feb 20, 2026
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I didnt say he could win. I think the parcours is good enough for him to possibly beat everyone else than Pogacar and maybe Evenepoel.

Maybe Pidcock on a super day is also better
I didn't say you said that. But I think you are implying he should race it. The question is: If he can't win, why should he race in Montreal?
 
Apr 15, 2014
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Agreed. On LBL, would be great if Pogi decided to sit it out now that winning all the Monuments in the same year is off the table. Without Pogi MVDP would have a fighting chance of winning there. Wishful thinking though and I doubt MVDP goes there just to fight for a podium spot.
I don't think he is competitive in LBL even without Pogacar. Evenepoel, Seixas, Healy, Ciccone - he cannot follow those on the longer climbs. You'd have to have extremely passive riders for him to have a chance of a podium, but the current crop of riders isn't like that.
 
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Jul 7, 2013
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Well, no monuments for the first time since 2021 is poor for an ATG rider like him. Obviously he had really bad luck in PR (unlike previous years), which is a part of the game there. In terms of form he still looked very good during cobbled monuments (i.e. the strongest in PR and 2nd strongest in RVV).
 
Feb 20, 2012
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Doesn’t Mathieu seem almost too casual here? In his interview afterward he said he knew his race was over, despite the fact he chased hard the rest of the race. View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXFP1KrDkn2/?igsh=ZWc4N3B6b3M4eHNx
His teammate was fixing the bike. He could run in there but he wouldn't have been able to start back any faster unless he could yoink it out of his teammates hands and fix it himself faster