*spotted down in Dumfries & Galloway #GlasgowScotland2023 🏴 Let us introduce you to..."Moooo-thieu van der Poel" Any other cycling-coo-name suggestions welcome 👇 📸Kitchen Coos and Ewes in D&G, Neale McQuistin
“I don't know why it took so long" - Joop Zoetemelk delighted to see long wait for Dutch road race world champion ended
CyclingMonday, 07 August 2023 at 15:30
Not since 1985 in Italy had a Dutchman been crowned the World Championship road race winner before last Sunday. It was Joop Zoetemelk back then and he is as pleased as anyone to finally have a successor in Mathieu van der Poel.
"A very nice race and a very nice winner," Zoetemelk told AD, expressing his delight at seeing van der Poel take the Rainbow Jersey. “I like that very much. In fact, it has taken much too long. I don't know why it took so long. You have to ask the riders that. Of course, a Dutchman could have won a little earlier. Mathieu too. But then everything has to go well.”
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On a brutally tough day of racing in Glasgow, van der Poel survived a late crash to take the win ahead of Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogacar. “In the Tour he was hardly in the spotlight. He only helped his team. The sprinters were too fast, the other stages too tough," Zoetemelk analyses. "He has not ridden for the stage victories and he must have already been thinking about the World Championship."
“In the Tour he worked on his condition. Well, we saw that today,” the now 76-year-old concludes. “Of course he already knows what it is like to be world champion, but in the cross. He has won monuments. It is great that this is now also on it and when I see him riding like this, there will be a few things added.”
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- Some things sound crazy until they aren't, what if he's actually right? 🤷vappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Why make a comment to state the obvious? Of course MvdP is much better at CX than Pogacar, does anyone doubt that But that wasn't his pointvappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- If you look at road alone obvi Pogacar is the better rider. But maybe MVDP is the better overall rider since he can win in three plus disciplines?mobk23-12-2024
- Correction on 2021 Olympics. It was mainly the Dutch ladies who didn’t know who was leading the race. Other teams like the Germans and Italians knew that Kiesenhofer was out front.mobk23-12-2024
- A champion turning into a sore loser. Or is he on coke again?
UltimateOpportunist23-12-2024 - If you look at the major races they’ve both been in, van der Poel had the early edge as lately Pogacar has had the advantage. It’s all on procyclingstats.RidesHills23-12-2024
- I wouldn’t assume Tadej can’t win at cross. He did a cross race, not a World Cup, a few years ago and crushed the field. It was a minor race. But he can win anywhere.mij23-12-2024
- I wonder what would happen if Pogacar attacked on the Cipressa instead of the Poggio in San Remo? Would MvdPoel still be able to follow?Ride197423-12-2024
- Debatable?Ride197423-12-2024
- The point is obvious: MVDP can beat Tadej on CX/Road and Tadej cannot. What is so hard to understand???averagecyclist22-12-2024