"I would tell Van der Poel that he should go to the Tour de France" - Michel Wuyts plans out world champion's preparation for Olympic Games
CyclingMonday, 22 April 2024 at 18:30
After fighting and scrapping his way to a podium finish at Liege-Bastogne-Liege last Sunday, Mathieu van der Poel is now set for an extended break from the peloton.
When the world champion returns, van der Poel still has two main targets for the season, retaining the Rainbow Jersey at the World Championships and taking gold at the Olympic Games in Paris. How the Dutch superstar will prepare for these races remain something that is up in the air however, although for Belgian cycling expert, Michel Wuyts, a clear plan can be seen.
“It seems obvious to me that Mathieu van der Poel will compete in the road race at the Paris Olympics. I don't expect him in the time trial because tenth place means nothing to him. He has to go for Olympic gold,” says Wuyts on the Wuyts & Vlaeminck podcast for HLN. "Given the time span between the road race and the end of the Tour, I would tell Van der Poel that he should go to the Tour de France."
"Often about 12 days is ideal to recharge your batteries and get the body to an even higher level. And that is precisely the time span between the Olympic road race and the end of the Tour," Wuyts continues. "Van der Poel must then ride the Tour as he has been riding it for a few years now. Aim for a stage or two, work for Philipsen in between and ensure that in the last week he shifts his focus to what will make him sparkle: the Olympic Games.”
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- and his "worst" result - 7th in TTmobk14-05-2025
- Mads Pedersen is an absolute beast. He really didn't look like he'd make it up that last climb, but he dug very deep, and was there when it mattered in the end. Three stage wins in the first five stages is very impressive indeed.
santiagobenites14-05-2025 - On one side, he was unhappy due to the TDF no, but i suppose money and other aspects made the differenceabstractengineer14-05-2025
- True, but, Mads has a few more years of collection and his season’s tally will start levelling off whereas Jonas’ should be just starting so even if Mads overtakes him, it’s probably briefly. That now all being clear, obviously the greatest is Tony Rominger, at least that’s their most popular male cyclist, which is another way of saying he must have been great :-) Hey, sorry but if someone’s going to ask rabbit-hole questions, you can only expect rabbit-hole answers.Mistermaumau14-05-2025
- Yeah, “little guy” who already beat Groenewegen and Merlier ;-) Also love how the media overhype anything in cycling, TNT saying this was a HUGE win for the team, let’s go back to using superlatives corresponding to reality. An important win maybe but c’mon, 50 points more than second when we’re at 20000? Had the team gotten 4th 5th and 6th and missed the podium completely they’d have collected more points but NO-ONE except themselves would have written one single word about their performance. Still well done to them for proving that the stage 3 pundit criticism about the little guys was unnecessary.Mistermaumau14-05-2025
- The ranking points between Jakob Fuglsang and Jonas Vingegaard is huge, BTW.. about 6700 ranking points. Mads trails Jonas by 14 points.FredMan14-05-2025
- Greatest ever? Based on CyclingRanking.com, Rolf Sorensen is #1, Jakob Fuglsang is #2, Jonas Vingegaard is #3, and Mads Pedersen is a very close #4. If you'd rather rely on personal opinion, or favorites, or what not, it's anybody's guess.FredMan14-05-2025
- I love it when the "little guy" wins!acem8214-05-2025
- Yeah, TdF is completely overrated, only amateurs and has-beens participate. And little ole skimpy Jonas has only won it as often as Switzerland or The Netherlands or Germany and Australia combined. Prestigewise there is NO comparison until he wins either the WC again or something big coz sorry G-W is basically a 2nd rate race at their level and he’s not won much else except a decent collection of stages, which Jonas and plenty of sprinters win too. Until now, MP is about pulling level with Asgreen who also won stages and classics, was a WC and HE got himself a monument and almost as many almosts as Mads but in a career only half as long.Mistermaumau13-05-2025
- Jonas is a great rider but only rides stage races so i would have to say he & Mads are about equal now. Stage racing in general is overvalued i think... (vs the power required to win one day races)Xrider5113-05-2025
Is that the smartest move?
Was not a great success last year, but he can use it to get into shape for gold
No to the TDF. Season goals are already achieved. Why go to the TDF and work as leadout for Jasper. Focus on the Olympics, tick the gold medal achievement
This guy has a very limited (or self interested way of looking at things).
I’m sure MvdP knows what he’s doing by now and that it has been thoroughly discussed within the team.
He has little to gain by joining in the TdF and much to lose seeing the way races are being ridden this year. No-one in their right mind will swap olympic gold for a few more TdF stage wins which they can gather the next year too. And no matter how much he’s willing to help JP and the team, that’s too big a sacrifice.
Olympics is once every 4 years, he has 2 more serious attempts after the disaster that was 2021 and if something goes wrong now, he’d only have one, at almost 34 hoping nothing happens until then in a sport where plenty have had their future cut away from under them.
Funny Pogi will be there too...