The podium of the 2024 Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Romain Bardet and two aliens. 👨👽👽 🥇 🇸🇮 Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 🏆 🥈 🇫🇷 Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) 🥉 🇳🇱 Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) #LBL
“If you come third, you can also win" - Alpecin-Deceuninck retain faith that Mathieu van der Poel can add Liege-Bastogne-Liege to palmares in future
CyclingSunday, 21 April 2024 at 20:30
After a brave effort, Mathieu van der Poel scraped and clawed his way to a podium finish at Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2024 on Sunday afternoon. Although that elusive victory wasn't taken, Alpecin-Deceuninck retain faith that one day it will come.
“It was the highest possible,” Alpecin-Deceuninck boss Christoph Roodhooft reflected afterwards to Wielerflits, noting the fact that van der Poel was on the back foot early after being caught behind a crash in the bunch. “It was a strange crash. It was very poorly marked. We actually thought that the calf had already drowned, but in the end there were still enough teams that wanted to ride in the second group. Ultimately, they did the work to bring that group back. The decision was then made to leave the cars in between, after the jury initially did not opt for this. Then everything came together very quickly."
Van der Poel himself was somewhat doubtful about his Liege-Bastogne-Liege future, saying "I now understand what they mean when they say that the cobblestone and hill classics can't be combined. We have to be realistic and even with the best legs I won't be able to follow Pogacar on La Redoute. That is food for thought for the future. Maybe I don't focus on it anymore. Only time will tell."
For Roodhooft however, the possibility for future victory remains. “If you come third, you can also win," he concludes. "If Pogacar is there it will of course be very difficult, but if he is not riding: why not? He delivered a very good performance. It is not easy to prepare yourself for this race if you have already ticked off all your goals."
Read also
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- First of all, I hope now all is ok with your baby!. Yeah, about to not accept foreign phone number is a big problem also for me. I have economic interests in 2 countries, I think that all can be ok with my Italian number... but NO! The world is globalized but not for bureaucracies.
maria2024202424-11-2024 - First of all, calm, this is a site to share point of views, doubts, intuitions about cycling. Let's think about it: if someone tells you that he is very tired but is going to run unimportant races immediately, ignoring a world championship much further away in time that would give him the opportunity to rest, there is something very contradictory. Maybe it is fair, but as a simple spectator I (and many others) do not understand it, it does not make sense.maria2024202424-11-2024
- I think the other side has said plenty, given comments about her reputation like what Renz said above. Perhaps this is her chance to speak up against that reputation? I have no idea but her comments seem pretty human, even if each person has their own version of the story.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Give her a team built around her with no competing leaders, like Pogacar has at UAE or Vingegaard has at Visma (seeing how Roglic left), and I wonder how Vollering would do. She’s already so good, and a team dedicated to her could make her even better.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Those injuries, an ability to manage pain and push himself, probably a load of TUEs to help him get back from an awful moment, and competing that hard without the long exercise base that was the norm - no wonder he was exhausted. We’ve now had two consecutive seasons of the second place rider having an injury that interrupts training, and it shows to what level their bodies are tuned for the insane task of winning the Tour. I certainly hope both (and their teams!) are healthy next year. It would be a first, after 4 years.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Winners seem to be like this. Win or lose, it is always on to the next thing. They don’t celebrate the big win, they don’t worry about the painful loss. They move on. It’s an amazing skill. But to be able to ride (and win) while not being able to walk? That’s a level of pain management that boggles my mind. Of course they have it, given what they put their bodies through, but it’s just crazy.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Poor Demi. But she behaves the same way when riding for the national team. Bring me my tiny violin.Renz24-11-2024
- good pointsmij24-11-2024
- Yes, please tell us based on your superior expertise about why JVs training and race schedule is wrong 🧐Crashjames24-11-2024
- I'd like to hear what the other side has to say.mij24-11-2024