Wout van Aert

[deej1]

The most curious thing this year was how 36 year old Thomas was significantly quicker on the Alpe than the 32 year old Thomas who won there in 2018.​

Could just be how it was raced. In 2018 Thomas followed the wheels and was fresh enough to ride away from everyone at the top, so could have gone faster. This year he hung on to Vingegaard and Pogacar for a good portion of the climb and the rode his own pace...

Also, the wind can make a fair difference (no idea what the conditions were like either year).

 

[noob]

This was quite funny. The way he talks about Wout... I feel like even if riders keeps omerta they also hint at stuff now and then. This felt like it could've been hinting...

 

[fbjim]

You're doping talk is just sh*t talk man!!!!

Big Mig did some crazy ***. But not in a roid rage crazy Wout way.

he won time trials by minutes, dude

 

[Pantani_lives]

To be fair, he did a short hard effort to drop Pogacar and then blew up not long afterwards. I don't think his time for the whole climb was ridiculous.

He finished in front of Thomas, who was going full for his podium spot. That's impossible for a guy of his weight after being in front for the whole day. There is no natural explanation for this.

 

[Cookster15]

It was a really hard Tour, though, apart from stage 2 and 3 they were ridden quite hard. The fights for the break were mostly long and tough. The average speed of the Tour after 19 stages was shown as fastest ever on PCS. And if we compare to the 90s, in those times there were often 7-12 flat stages.
Also, the heat was pretty extreme on some days, which will have taken something out of some riders.

I think overall the climbing times can only be taken as a hint, that is in that case, for me, that the superior rides of some riders don't come from everyone else being so weak.

How they beat the tests and the passport I have no idea. But I'm sure they have found a way.

They are still about a minute off what I would expect on the Alpe. Don’t forget bikes have improved since 1997. Yes the heat was a factor.

 

[Ripper]

he won time trials by minutes, dude

I know! If you look through the posts I commented on how Big Mig was even more ridiculous, but agreed that Wout's attacks and aggression everywhere are different (roiding out)

 

[Savant12]

To be fair, he did a short hard effort to drop Pogacar and then blew up not long afterwards. I don't think his time for the whole climb was ridiculous.

He did a hard effort to hold off Pog/Kuss then did a much harder effort to drop Pog, but still had energy left to recover and get on Pog’s wheel for a bit.

 

[ppanther92]

This was quite funny. The way he talks about Wout... I feel like even if riders keeps omerta they also hint at stuff now and then. This felt like it could've been hinting...

That was indeed funny. Like the whole interview.

 

[42x16ss]

he won time trials by minutes, dude

Sure, but Miguel defended in the mountains and didn't burn energy like a lunatic

 

[QuickZulu]

To be fair, he did a short hard effort to drop Pogacar and then blew up not long afterwards. I don't think his time for the whole climb was ridiculous.

He actually didn't blow up. That was the most ridiculous part of it. He continued tracking Pogacar and came in grinning behind him, still ahead of the Thomas group.

 

[Mayomaniac]

That was indeed funny. Like the whole interview.

Sagan also openly dislikes Wout, according to him they don't talk to eachother.

 

[saunaking]

Is this cx video of wva legit? or a deep fake?
Because it looks so out of this world its hard to believe more is not made from this. How old is it?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1551115192892801024

View: https://twitter.com/festinaboy/status/1551115192892801024?s=20&t=Da7Plh8CLx-Y8CzDm0uhjQ

 

[Ricco']

Is this cx video of wva legit? or a deep fake?
Because it looks so out of this world its hard to believe more is not made from this. How old is it?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1551115192892801024

View: https://twitter.com/festinaboy/status/1551115192892801024?s=20&t=Da7Plh8CLx-Y8CzDm0uhjQ

Don't remember all of the snippets posted there but at least the last one is legit, saw that live.

(Great race btw, Krawatencross 2017, suggest everyone to see it)

 

[markene2]

Is this cx video of wva legit? or a deep fake?
Because it looks so out of this world its hard to believe more is not made from this. How old is it?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1551115192892801024

View: https://twitter.com/festinaboy/status/1551115192892801024?s=20&t=Da7Plh8CLx-Y8CzDm0uhjQ

Its real, motodoping went really mainstream with sky and the uci is fully aware and complicit, they even blocked the french police multiple times from examining team skys back wheels in 2015 during the tour. (also look into how many time they rode with an unbranded back wheel, its been well documented on the forum.)

If it ever got out it would destroy the sport, so it never will. So i dont think they are doing anything more hardcore now than riders before, its just that they have "technological" assistance that makes them able to beat super charged climbing times. i dont mind doping because of the end of the day its a human effort that drives the climbing times, but once you get the assistance of hub motors etc you ruin the entire sport. you never know what times where set by humans alone.

They should have nipped it in the bud once Breschel and Cancellara did it during the cobbles classics in 2010. But now its to late.

 

[nayr497]

That was indeed funny. Like the whole interview.

Yep. Crazy lady yelling strange things at him.

Some new level. No ***. Nobody ever won on all parcours, but he does. Guy seems incredibly talented, but no way he's legit.

 

[nayr497]

When Wout started winning TTs, mtns and rouleur stages a few years back and there wasn't widespread anger, yeah, I knew we were in for a weird new era.

Guy is a CX champ, no way he should be winning uphill drag races against 120 pound climbers. Something ain't right, folks!

 

[Hugh Januss]

When Wout started winning TTs, mtns and rouleur stages a few years back and there wasn't widespread anger, yeah, I knew we were in for a weird new era.

Guy is a CX champ, no way he should be winning uphill drag races against 120 pound climbers. Something ain't right, folks!

Yeah he should probably just run out of gas after an hour, huh? Like van der Poel and Pidcock do.

 

[Hugh Januss]

I've been prepared to reserve judgement on Wout. But I've been watching GT's since the early 90's, and I've never witnessed anything even remotely as impressive.

Because normally the super-mutant freakshows are over one climb, or even one bit of one climb. The really stand out ones might go for a whole stage, a'la Landis, or Chiappucci '92 or the Dawg's Giro.

But this was the whole friggin tour, from start to (nearly) finish. Basically riding the peloton off his back wheel, at will, day after day, and paying zero for energy. Seemingly even gaining energy. I have never, ever seen this before. It defies everything we know about riding GT's.

Still Van Aert was an hour and a half behind, that's a lot of "active recovery" riding. If he doesn't sit up and go easy to the finish in a number of key places, he doesn't attack like he does at other times.

 

[Hugh Januss]

96 looked like this:

If this year's stage was also unipuerto, the times would have been scarly closer to 96.

Although that stage was nearly 60 K longer than Hautacam this year and I think the whole tour was around 600K longer in '96 than this year.

 

[PhiLiz]

Although that stage was nearly 60 K longer than Hautacam this year and I think the whole tour was around 600K longer in '96 than this year.

60km of mostly flat terrain. It's far easier than this year.

 

[The Hegelian]

'95 La Plagne is probably the most famous, but that was a '97 Ullrich Arcalis attack, he just got on the front and rode a tempo that ground everybody else into dust. I picked that version of him #1 in the Fantasy Doping Draft.

Thanks for the invitation to revisit this. Yes, he looked like a good natured Terminator, just utterly relentless.

 

[Unchained]

This

This was quite funny. The way he talks about Wout... I feel like even if riders keeps omerta they also hint at stuff now and then. This felt like it could've been hinting...

this was really really a sad video,partially because it was in English..so Sagan said exactly what he meant..didn't have a wide variety of words and phrases..so him saying..the race is easy because I am not winning,not lots of fanfare and very little media attention..
You can see and feel that he wants to win again..Wout has every spotlight turned on him..is it too much? Was it the reason that Sagan fell from the sky?
There are a few examples of cyclists who flew too close to the sun..I watch The Move podcast from time to time..and I like the version of person once they are out of the spotlight..
Another video worth watching is Robbie, and Wiggins talking to Gilbert about his final TDF and his pending retirement..everyone smiled throughout

 

[deej1]

He actually didn't blow up. That was the most ridiculous part of it. He continued tracking Pogacar and came in grinning behind him, still ahead of the Thomas group.

Fair point. But he did a very hard effort and then pulled off and slowed right down (and then cycled his own pace to the top). Thomas was a couple of minutes behind. Grinning because he'd just helped win the tour for his team.

 

[deej1]

He finished in front of Thomas, who was going full for his podium spot. That's impossible for a guy of his weight after being in front for the whole day. There is no natural explanation for this.

He started the climb minutes in front of Thomas. (Van Aert's time was 41.11 (Strava), Thomas's was apparently 39:28.)

Still, good going for a big fellow who's been in the brake all day.

 

[Aimar16]

This

this was really really a sad video,partially because it was in English..so Sagan said exactly what he meant..didn't have a wide variety of words and phrases..so him saying..the race is easy because I am not winning,not lots of fanfare and very little media attention..
You can see and feel that he wants to win again..Wout has every spotlight turned on him..is it too much? Was it the reason that Sagan fell from the sky?
There are a few examples of cyclists who flew too close to the sun..I watch The Move podcast from time to time..and I like the version of person once they are out of the spotlight..
Another video worth watching is Robbie, and Wiggins talking to Gilbert about his final TDF and his pending retirement..everyone smiled throughout

Sagan is 32 and past his prime, maybe the pandemic played a role in this... Sagan is aware that he is no longer the main guy

If you look back at Sagan's career, he already looked very promising at the age of 19. He improved year by year until he reached his peak, and more or less stayed at that level for quite a long time from 2012 to 2018. There were no big performance jumps in his career.

He hasn't had a supercharged year like Gilbert did in 2011, which was mysteriously a much stronger season than he had before or after.

There have been certain types of races where Sagan was considered the favourite and he consistently finished in the top places. Sometimes he won, often not. He never went into full *** mode like WvA which fired up the clinic...