"I think I started puberty a little later than the rest and I'm maturing a little later" - Lennert Van Eetvelt keen to kick-on after breakthrough UAE Tour success
Cycling
In something of a turn up for the books, Lotto Dstny's Lennert Van Eetvelt took a stunning stage win atop Jebel Hafeet on the final stage of the 2024 UAE Tour, making enough of a gap to secure the general classification in the process.
"Competing with those men is what I had hoped for," he reflects in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad. "Last year I already had the feeling that I was not far from that level and I had been making very big steps every year in recent years. I knew that if I took another step this year, I would get very close to that level. So it is in line with my progression. I think I started puberty a little later than the rest and I'm maturing a little later than the rest."
Undoubtedly the biggest win of his career to date, the 22-year-old saw off competition from more renowned riders such as Ben O'Connor, Pello Bilbao and Jay Vine to secure the overall victory. "I now know what I can do and I hope to do it again," he continues confidently, eyeing the Volta a Catalunya. "Winning will be very difficult, but maybe I will go there now with the ambition to finish on the podium instead of a place in the top ten. By nature I am more of a puncher than a climber. So I'm very curious to see how I will like these races with the pros."
"The goal for the Vuelta would depend on how the stage races in the WorldTour would go at the beginning of the year," he concludes. "But in the long term that is what I want to work towards. More and more Belgians have ambitions in the Grand Tours. It crept into me little by little. The more races I ride, the more I start to enjoy riding a classification, the more I can handle that pressure."
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- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Agreed except the length of climbs, pretty sure you can stretch that to about a km unless we’re talking about half a dozen in quick succession.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
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- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024