"I don't know whether it's worth it to go to Africa" - Mathieu van der Poel may target Mountain Bike Worlds in 2025 over Rwanda road Worlds
Cycling
2024 Gravel World Championships:
| 1 | VAN DER POEL Mathieu | 4:41:23 |
| 2 | VERMEERSCH Florian | 1:03 |
| 3 | HERMANS Quinten | 3:47 |
| 4 | STUYVEN Jasper | ,, |
| 5 | VERMEERSCH Gianni | 3:48 |
| 6 | SWIFT Connor | ,, |
| 7 | MOHORIC Matej | ,, |
| 8 | MERLIER Tim | 4:15 |
| 9 | KIELICH Timo | ,, |
| 10 | AERTS Toon | ,, |
| 11 | MEURISSE Xandro | ,, |
| 12 | LINDBERG Jonas | ,, |
| 13 | GOVEKAR Matevz | 6:06 |
| 14 | OTTEMA Rick | 6:14 |
| 15 | PANHUYZEN Kevin | 6:20 |
I don't watch in detail Rwanda course but at first glance it's not suitable for VdP. Instead it's suitable for Jonas. Come on Jonas, go! After 2018 (you were very young) it's time to try again a world championship.
no, the africa worlds course isn’t “hilly,” van der poel is great it “hilly.” the africa course is insanely MOUNTAINOUS — over 18,000ft (5,000+ meters) of climbing, comparable to the hardest queen stage days ever at the vuelta. i really hope van der poel dedicates himself to the MTB championship. it’s his deepest passion and he’s certainly earned the right to follow it. he’s put himself in a position with both alpecin and canyon where they will support almost any goal he has — probably more real freedom to chart his own course than any rider in the peloton, including pog.
It's certainly not mountainous because there are no mountains... Unless you count Mt Kigali as a mountain but that still only makes 1 mountain the entire race, 100km from the finish. The course is very hilly
i apologize for my confusing use of figurative language to make the point that the parcours is the EQUIVALENT of a wildly difficult stage in the high mountains. thank you.
And this year's parcours wasn't? Almost 4500m of elevation and yet MvdP finished 3rd
dude, I’M not the one saying the elevation gain is too much for mathieu, MATHIEU is saying that. i’m PRETTY SURE that’s what the article is about…
Maybe it’s not the right word but considering everything in Rwanda lies over 1000m it’s still quite relevant as a description. Certainly it will affect breathing, sleep and performance, acclimating will be necessary and need time, preparations will have to be specific and at altitude.
As for the comparisons, maybe it seems tougher than a tough Tour day but that’s not weird considering this is a one day event, no-one should be riding with tired legs unless they’ve chosen to enter several races. And then compared to one day races, it’s really not INSANE.
Amstel has over 3200 and is considered quite flat
LBL has around 4400 and you’re hard done by to find a hill over 650m in the whole country.
Plenty of amateur races have this kind of elevation gain, even over shorter distances, why do we use such superlatives when the world’s elite are involved, heck, hasn’t anyone heard of Everesting?
Would love to see him dedicate to MTB for a portion of the season. Agree that he has earned it. Unlike some other multidiscipline riders NOBODY can complain about his road achievements.
The problem will be sponsors and as someone here pointed out, he once said (long long time ago) that he rides for his sponsors.
MTB is one of the poor children of cycling, there’s no reason for sponsors to encourage such a rider to choose that over the much more lucrative road season now that he’s shown what he can achieve.
"...he’s put himself in a position with both alpecin and canyon where they will support almost any goal he has — probably more real freedom to chart his own course than any rider in the peloton, including pog."
Lachlan Morton would like to have a word...
yup, definitely a jack of all trades. i’m probably wrong, but i didn’t think he’d been in the world tour peloton for years now. regardless, you’re right. great, interesting, versatile guy.
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