Wout van Aert

[Ripper]

WvWTF

 

[Savant12]

Has WVA reached peak-level ridiculousness? What can he likely achieve next year to reduce even this year to a footnote?

 

[gunara]

Has WVA reached peak-level ridiculousness? What can he likely achieve next year to reduce even this year to a footnote?

Maybe winning Itzulia without skipping being good at the two monuments.

 

[Aimar16]

Does anyone else think he could have easily finished fourth in this year's Giro? If the GC win had been his/Jumbo goal...

 

[Rackham]

Has WVA reached peak-level ridiculousness? What can he likely achieve next year to reduce even this year to a footnote?

Winning some monuments, for starters.

Dominating the Tour de France after a good preparation is one thing, but being able to dominate the classics, monuments & world championships he craves so much? That's something else.

It doesn't matter how impressive he was in the TdF, his palmarès is still light compared to riders like Sagan, Cancellara or Boonen.

 

[Bolder]

Winning some monuments, for starters.

Dominating the Tour de France after a good preparation is one thing, but being able to dominate the classics, monuments & world championships he craves so much? That's something else.

It doesn't matter how impressive he was in the TdF, his palmarès is still light compared to riders like Sagan, Cancellara or Boonen.

This is technically true. But it's due to his own preparation, race tactics and race schedule. If he picked and chose a little better and wasn't asked to be a dom during the Tour, I could see him winning all sorts of classics/monuments and WCs. Otoh he could also be doomed to "best rider never to win X and Y" because of what I think are excessively cautious tactics in one-day races. A little more Alaf and MvDP flair would certainly help.

I'm also not sure that the three riders you mention would have such an easy time of it today; it just feels like the overall level in the peloton is higher than even 5-10 years ago; whether that's due to clinic issues or better training/nutrition etc is hard to say.

 

[Aimar16]

Winning some monuments, for starters.

Dominating the Tour de France after a good preparation is one thing, but being able to dominate the classics, monuments & world championships he craves so much? That's something else.

It doesn't matter how impressive he was in the TdF, his palmarès is still light compared to riders like Sagan, Cancellara or Boonen.

He would have probably destroyed MvdP and Pog in the Tour of Flanders if he hadn't gotten Covid. Btw, I don't think it matters to him whether he had good or bad preparation. He finished second in Paris-Roubaix after just coming out of Covid and not racing for three weeks. Half the peleton has suffered from illness and post-Covid symptoms for an extended period of time, but even Covid won't slow this guy down.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

He would have probably destroyed MvdP and Pog in the Tour of Flanders if he hadn't gotten Covid. Btw, I don't think it matters to him whether he had good or bad preparation. He finished second in Paris-Roubaix after just coming out of Covid and not racing for three weeks. Half the peleton has suffered from illness and post-Covid symptoms for an extended period of time, but even Covid won't slow this guy down.

He's at his best after apparent injury/illness - just look at the Tour and his wounded knee.

 

[BR2]

Wout's Tour:

Stages:
1 2nd
2 2nd
3 2nd
4 1st
5 16th, brought Vingegaard back and held him in contention pretty much on his own on the cobbles
6 103rd, 146k in break
7 100th (Super Planche), points in intermediate sprint
8 1st
9 51st, 127k in a break
10 65th (Megève)
11 25th, 115k in a break
12 47th (Alpe d'Huez), points in intermediate sprint
13 7th (won meaningless sprint of peloton)
14 48th (Mende)
15 2nd
16 13th, 146k in break
17 50th (Peyragudes), points in intermediate sprint
18 3rd behind Vingegaard and Pogacar after pulling on Hautacam, 103k in a break
19 71st, worked for Laporte
20 1st
21 didn't contend sprint

Anybody who f*ckin tries to tell me there's a possibility he's kinda clean - you know, just...

Okay, my memory is bad, can you fill the holes - did he do anything on relevance on some of the stages where he didn't get a podium or was in a break? Or did he really take those days off?

(Notice, even on the stages that are black here, his worst result was 100th, he was never in one of the last grupettos.)

 

[Billie]

He's at his best after apparent injury/illness - just look at the Tour and his wounded knee.

He's sick again lool. So predictable.

But apparently not sick enough today but he will be sick enough in couple of days not to race.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

He's sick again lool. So predictable.

But apparently not sick enough today but he will be sick enough in couple of days not to race.

Oh dear, is the build up to him coming fifth at the WCRR?

 

[Ripper]

Wout's Tour:

Stages:
1 2nd
2 2nd
3 2nd
4 1st
5 16th, brought Vingegaard back and held him in contention pretty much on his own on the cobbles
6 103rd, 146k in break
7 100th (Super Planche), points in intermediate sprint
8 1st
9 51st, 127k in a break
10 65th (Megève)
11 25th, 115k in a break
12 47th (Alpe d'Huez), points in intermediate sprint
13 7th (won meaningless sprint of peloton)
14 48th (Mende)
15 2nd
16 13th, 146k in break
17 50th (Peyragudes), points in intermediate sprint
18 3rd behind Vingegaard and Pogacar after pulling on Hautacam, 103k in a break
19 71st, worked for Laporte
20 1st
21 didn't contend sprint

Anybody who f*ckin tries to tell me there's a possibility he's kinda clean - you know, just...

Okay, my memory is bad, can you fill the holes - did he do anything on relevance on some of the stages where he didn't get a podium or was in a break? Or did he really take those days off?

(Notice, even on the stages that are black here, his worst result was 100th, he was never in one of the last grupettos.)

Pretty clear to me that he was taking rest days when he was in the breaks ... it's not like he was in the break for the entire day's distance!

 

[Forever The Best]

'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.

I wonder where the new entries would be ranked in that draft.
We had Astana's comical 2015 Giro, Froome being dominant for a few years ( probably 2013 TdF would still be the version picked over 2015 TdF ), Quintana coming closer in 2015 TdF and beating Froome in 2016 Vuelta, Dumoulin channeling Olano in 2017 Giro and one upping it in 2018 season, we had a track rider winning consecutive MTFs on road to TdF victory in 2018, Yates suddenly becoming a GT contender and toying with a star field in Giro before collapsing then winning Vuelta, then Roglic/Jumbo looking like they were the next Sky but being usurped by Pogacar before Vingegaard making Rasmussen proud and even being an excellent time-trialist and Jumbo having one fo the most dominant team performances of all time this year.
And we also had 2020 Giro where random riders suddenly fought for GT by upping their performance massively from one day to the next and breaking records on some climbs or Hindley Giro winning performance on Fedaia this year.

We also had things like Nibali rising from the dead in 2016 Giro ( But his 2014 TdF version was better ). And Cavendish's 2016 and 2021 TdF's. And Van Aert this year was just taking the p*ss.

I imagine Vingegaard would be ranked very high, and Pogacar, Roglic, Van Aert, Thomas, Dumoulin, Hindley, Yates, Bernal, Landa, Carapaz, Aru will likely all have entries. Quintana would also get his 2015 TdF version.

 

[Monte Serra]

For some reason, I doubt that the Belgian police will launch an investigation into Van Aert's sports-medical preparation.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1552989804874416128

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/OutOfCycling/status/1552989804874416128

 

[BR2]

For some reason, I doubt that the Belgian police will launch an investigation into Van Aert's sports-medical preparation.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1552989804874416128

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/OutOfCycling/status/1552989804874416128

Excuse me, that's a classic undercover detective's move - pretending to be a fan to get a signature to later compare it to the signature on the evidence...

Nah - looks like nobody is going to say anything. It all looks totally credible.

 

[Ricco']

Wasn't he sick with a cold?

Not related with WVA per se but I wonder what's the protocol of OOC testing when a rider has a cold/flu/covid/is quarantined. Are the doctors still testing?

 

[Savant12]

Sickness and knee issues are the new marginal pains.

 

[spredy]

If true, wow

View: https://youtu.be/lBVTinfe0iM

 

[Netserk]

It looks like they use the weight of 77 kg for all the examples.

 

[roundabout]

Assuming 77Kg

1s 23.4 W/kg
10s 19.5 W/kg
30s 16.2 W/kg
1m 12.9 W/kg
3m 9.1 W/kg
5m 7.8 W/kg
20m 6.2 W/kg
60m 5.9 W/kg

Pinot for comparison (from March 2015) best performances for each duration (only same durations as for Van Aert)

1s 20.4 W/kg
30s 13.2 W/kg
1m 10.5 W/kg
5m 7.4 W/kg
20m 6.5 W/kg
60m 5.7 W/kg

 

[deej1]

It looks like they use the weight of 77 kg for all the examples.

That's his Strava weight (you can see it using Sauce for Strava).

 

[deej1]

Pinot for comparison (from March 2015) best performances for each duration (only same durations as for Van Aert)....
...
20m 6.5 W/kg
60m 5.7 W/kg

Expect Pinot's 60 minute's a bit lower than he's capable of given his 20 minute. Probably didn't do a properly full gas hour

 

[roundabout]

Expect Pinot's 60 minute's a bit lower than he's capable of given his 20 minute. Probably didn't do a properly full gas hour

Last ITT in the 2014 Tour was over an hour

 

[deej1]

Last ITT in the 2014 Tour was over an hour

If it was from that, he's probably not at his best at the end of the tour on a tt bike

 

[meat puppet]

If the data is legit, the 1-5min powers are nuts. Especially when combined with the rest of the power curve.

Based on Thomas' alleged 730w for a minute on TDF stage 4, I quickly back-of-the-enveloped WVA's one minute around 11+w/kg @75kg there. Given that Jumbo's attack lasted longer and was followed by a 10min solo TT at 60+kph, it probably was not a full all out 1min, but in or at least near the ballpark given these circumstances. Bonkers stuff, really.