Following exciting World Championships in Glasgow that many hated, but even more loved, Cyrille Guimard arrives with his column for Cyclism'Actu to talk about the controversial course or the new champion.
"I found it to be a very beautiful course. In addition, I know it, since in 2018 there had been the European Championships on this track, moreover Van der Poel had finished 2nd and Van Aert 3rd This course requires all the qualities necessary to make a great champion, it leaves no room for any deficiencies in technical terms, driving, race management, effort management, permanent concentration..."
"And we had very few crashes, it was much less dangerous than a stage of the Tour de France or the Giro. But since many riders today no longer practice this kind of course, apart from cyclo-crossman and mountain bikers, since their training comes down to putting on the power meter and pedaling. Except that when there are bends and restarts, your data is no longer useful."
Guimard compliments the new World Champion: "He's a very, very handsome World Champion. He won Milan-SanRemo, Paris-Roubaix, the cyclo-cross World Championships, you can't find a more handsome World Champion than Mathieu van der Poel. the only ones who could replace him were Wout Van Aert and Tadej Pogacar. It's a half-French victory. Where Raymond Poulidor finished 2nd, his grandson finished 1st. And his dad, Adrie van der Poel was also 2nd. It's beautiful."