Mathieu van der Poel reportedly set to be supported by Dylan van Baarle and Daan Hoole in Olympic road race
Cycling
With seven World Championship titles across two-discipline to his name, Mathieu van der Poel will head to Paris later this summer in an attempt to add an Olympic Games gold medal to his already impressive palmares.
With the Dutch team getting the right to pick three riders for men's elite Olympic road race, that meant there were two spots alongside and in support of van der Poel available for the Dutch national coach Koos Moerenhout to choose. A tricky choice to say the least given the vast number of quality Dutch riders in the peloton today.
With the likes of Olav Kooij, Robert Gesink, Wilco Kelderman, Fabio Jakobsen, Dylan van Baarle, Thymen Arensman, Koen Bouwman among many others, it was certainly a tricky decision for Moerenhout to narrow things down and secure his selection. In the end, the Dutch national coach has opted for the duo of Dylan van Baarle and Daan Hoole. Although the official confirmation is yet to be delivered, this news is reported by Dutch news outlet, CyclingOnline.
For van der Poel, the Olympic Games in Paris are now all about the men's road race after he was officially confirmed to not be taking part in the mountain bike discipline later this summer, as had previously been suggested by reliable sources. “This is the most logical choice to be able to prepare for my goals without time pressure,” said van der Poel to his Alpecin-Deceuninck team when his summer plans were officially confirmed. “The combination with MTB was too difficult. But who knows, maybe in LA ‘28 I can focus on mountain biking. My ambition for the Tour de France? I hope like last year to assist teammate Jasper Philipsen in his hunt for stage wins and a possible green jersey. And the goal is to also win a stage myself this year.”
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024