"It's impossible for him not to fall. But in the end, he didn't" - Dutch pundit shocked with Mathieu van der Poel's bike handling

Mathieu van der Poel is a cyclocross and mountain bike specialist, known for his excellent bike handling skills that have translated onto his road racing. It is a great part of the reason why he is the current three-time reigning winner of Paris-Roubaix, and it is not by chance. Thijs Zonneveld believes that van der Poel's skills, highlighted by a recent video in which he miraculously prevented a crash, are a great part of why he is as good as he is today.

"That save is not normal. He immediately unclipped, and I'd say he'd fall flat on his face, because unclipping, with a skipping chain and his bike tilted beneath him. And then, with how fast he's going, it's impossible for him not to fall. But in the end, he didn't fall," Zonneveld said on the In de Waaier podcast. 

The short clip during a training ride shows van der Poel doing a second sprint. The first one had seen him experience a chain malfunction. In the second occasion he suffered a mechanical and his foot unclipped from the bike, causing him to lose full control. In the chaos of the situation, the video doesn't show exactly how he stayed upright on the bike, but that was indeed the case.

"You can see there are gear shifting issues, but he still sprints with it. This was a typical crash you've all experienced at some point. Where you think 'I actually knew that chain wasn't working properly, so I really shouldn't have sprinted with it'."

But the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider did and managed to do what likely few other riders would've done. And this is part of a larger trend, in which van der Poel is able to consistently avoid crashes. In the bigger picture, this allows him to stay consistently healthy and injury-free, which allows him to develop over the year without much of a break - something Wout van Aert has struggled with, due to his many injuries, specially in 2024.

"The few crashes he has is part of his success. If you avoid crashing year after year, it really makes a difference." He makes a clear comparison: "You have Jay Vine and Wilco Kelderman... they crash so often that their progress is constantly interrupted. How many training and race days they've missed throughout their career".

"The amount of crashes he can overcome through exceptional riding skills is part of his success," Zonneveld argues. "That allows him to keep building, keep improving his fitness. And that's why he doesn't fall behind the challenges other riders do,"