Mathieu van der Poel: "I don't see this as the opportunity of a lifetime to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege”
Cycling
With a mouthwatering battle set for Sunday afternoon as Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel and more battle it out for the win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, a big question is, can the world champion make it a monumental hat-trick this Spring?
Playing down his chances in the team presentation, van der Poel was coy. “The chance is rather small that we will win the fourth monument of the season (Jasper Philipsen also won Milano-Sanremo ed.) with the team on Sunday,” the Alpecin-Deceuninck leader told Sporza. “We have a strong team, but also strong opponents. Everyone is focused on Tadej Pogacar and that makes sense. He is the strongest rider. So it will be important to try to follow him."
Many have touted this as the best opportunity van der Poel will ever get to win in Liege, thanks in part to the absence of the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Wout van Aert and Primoz Roglic. The Dutchman himself however, doesn't see things that way. "I don't see this as the opportunity of a lifetime to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege,” he insists.
“There are many more riders in the peloton who can do this better than me,” the world champion continued. “Of course the race still has to be ridden tomorrow. But for the first time I will not be the outspoken leader of the team. Quinten Hermans and Axel Laurance, for example, will have a freer role.”
Didn't MDVD and Pogi are two different riders all together?
Seems the media really want to build up to this « showdown » between completely different riders. It’s like the dream in athletics for showdowns in the 400m between the worlds’ best sprinters and 800m runners There is an equally valid argument that the more aces are participating, the more each has to take advantage of their own strengths by taking advantage of others during their weaknesses so his best opportunity may still be to come.
Agree totally but what are they supposed to do, Pog and MVP are out and out favorites but the weather is the big factor. This brings in many scenarios, hope it is not to boring for some.😁
Well, maybe change the narrative to sell the race as being far more open than it looks? After all, we have the 2 favourites, both in unknown form. A whole host of challengers who’ve proven in the last week or so that surprises are always possible. The weather Team strategies All the possible permutations of momentary rider collaboration Unforeseeable incidents. It gets kind of boring to listen to everyone saying who they fancy, the only interest in following that in advance is when someone adds some new angle to arguing why so you can learn something but that remains pretty rare.
If it’s too boring they can go watch F1 ;-) Boring is in the eye (and more so in the brain) of the beholder.
Lol, I watch tennis, and they hardly boring, unless your favorite players not playing :-) WTA and ATP tennis are great options too
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