"Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar are really on another level" - Niki Terpsta previews Spring Classics contenders in 2025
Cycling
We don't have long to wait before the 2025 Spring Classics campaign gets underway in earnest. Ahead of the upcoming battles, multiple-time Monument winner Niki Terpstra has cast an eye over the potential contenders.
When it comes to potential winners, Van Vleuten spots two riders on a different level to all other hopefuls. "I really think it will come down to Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar," previews the Dutchman in conversation with NOS. "Of course, there are other riders who can make it difficult for these two titans. Of course, I’m thinking of Wout van Aert. Behind these three, I also expect a lot from Arnaud De Lie and Jasper Philipsen. Then you have a group of about ten more riders behind them, but Van der Poel and Pogacar are really on another level."
As mentioned, a muliple-time Monument winner, with successes at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix on his palmares, Terpstra knows more than most how to get the job done in the biggest races. In the coming year though, the Dutch star foresees a different method of victory than has become the custom in recent seasons. "I expect fewer solo victories this year, but a lot of early attacks," he explains. "However, in the end, it will probably be the two best riders breaking away together and dominating the race."
Although it may be somewhat obvious, Terpstra also explains exactly what sets the last two world champion's apart from their rivals. "Pogacar is truly a gem for the sport. He doesn’t follow all the tactical plans and just does what he feels like, which is amazing to watch. The way he attacked 90 kilometers from the finish at the World Championships in Zurich was just insane," he recalls. "It’s truly incredible that Van der Poel has already won Flanders Finest three times at his age. It’s an extremely tough race with a long history, and the fact that no one has ever won it four times just says it all."
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- Whatever happens tomorrow... it'll be a hell of a raceslappers6605-04-2025
- Exactly Tadej, the cancer of modern society. Full of good-for-nothing people who gain visibility and importance on social media mocking, humiliating (and worse things) to earn money. But it's the follower's fault, no followers, no "influencers".
maria2024202405-04-2025 - Great commentCaralladas05-04-2025
- i’m such a sucker for those group-hug, happy ending moments between competitors, largely because it’s so WASN’T that way in my younger, stronger days. (on that note, i have this hope that somewhere down the road, maybe fifteen or twenty years, a middle aged wout and mathieu will go for a pleasure ride together in flanders, and reminisce about the days when they were the young, strong monsters that stalked the cobbles.)OCexile05-04-2025
- Just like Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Ronde van Vlaanderen was/is NOT on MAX. Get your facts straight.Ben04-04-2025
- You might bounce more for the same power, but not the same speed. Sending 20 kgs over a jump at 20 kph will fly just as far as 10 kgs at the same speed. Again, Galileo demonstrated this.acem8204-04-2025
- So, you're saying that doing a bunch of small hops on a bike is easier if you're heavier? Why do people buy lighter bikes, then? Why do they generally feel better and faster? An appeal to "rhythm" is not helpful either, as the right "rhythm" might be on the lighter or heavier side of things, and as it varies, it's likely a wash either way. Then we are left with the physics truth that it takes less power to lift lighter things than heavier things.acem8204-04-2025
- No, weight doesn't affect the ability to go into the wind at all. It's all CdA vs power at that point. For example, it's "obvious" that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one. But, absent wind resistance, it's not true (Galileo demonstrated this). An appeal to "obviousness" doesn't matter when the physics is clear. And yes, you have to be able to hold everything else constant, or you can't determine anything! So, imagine a 300 watt rider at 80 kgs with a CdA of 2.0, then imagine that same rider at 70 kgs with a CdA of 2.0. (Assume ideal tire pressure for both, same bike.) Which one can ride over a bumpy road fastest? The lighter one, as he doesn't have to lift as much. That's also why when they test bikes on 5 star cobbled sectors, the MTB goes faster than even a cobble-build road bike. Even though rolling resistance is higher on a flat road, and the CdA is junk, it smooths out the cobbles, allowing the person to not lift as much as they otherwise would.acem8204-04-2025
- I disagree. If you have lower weight, you will bounce more at the same speed, meaning that you will spend more time in the air and shorter time on the ground, as a consequence, when you are on the ground you have to produce more force for the same speedvappaxbipmv04-04-2025
- That’s not quite true, even steep climbs and sudden gradient changes can be considered as remaining tangential to the wheel whereas the occasional dip between cobbles a wheel drops into cannot, as such riding over cobbles can become like a permanent surmounting of small obstacles that hit back into your wheel slowing you drastically if you don’t have the right rhythm to “fly” on the mounds, here again the greater the momentum the less these obstacles reduce your speed. But, it is but one factor, you cannot decide on this alone. Like with natural surface ripple formation on desert tracks used by vehicles, there is an optimal speed range to efficiently pass over such surfaces, too fast or slow and your car gets shaken to pieces from the “harmonics” in the vibrations caused. Pretty sure the same applies to riding on cobbles.Mistermaumau04-04-2025