"He was making a sandwich and eating it and only then did he continue!" - Wout Poels describes Geraint Thomas' bike change in critical Monte Lussari time trial
Cycling
Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana stage wins accompanied by several note-worthy results and impressive performances - many would expect Wout Poels to speak of such season in superlatives, yet that's not the case. As whole Bahrain - Victorious still mourns the loss of Gino Mäder, Poels himself speaks of 'a very average season' in the In Koers podcast.
"It's definitely still fresh. I certainly think about it a lot. We will also wear it on our shirt again. It went so quickly, suddenly we were at the Tour again, everything just keeps going. That's unreal." In an emotional Tour, Poels won the stage to Mont Blanc. "After the Pello Bilbao victory, I also wanted to win for Gino," concluded Poels
At Giro d'Italia, Poels saw his old teammate Geraint Thomas on his way to the overall victory, until he lost pink to Primoz Roglic in the final time trial. "I really hoped that G would win. I was surprised at the slow bike change. He was making a sandwich and eating it and only then did he continue!"
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Poels already knows his goals for 2024. The 36-year-old Dutchman will be hunting for a Giro stage victory: "That completes the list. But I would perhaps rather win a Tour stage. Or yes, actually both. I'm definitely not going to the Tour. We're going all out for the Giro first."
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024