"My relationship with them is good" - New Belgian national coach excited to work with Wout van Aert & Remco Evenepoel
Cycling
The Belgian national team enters a new era in 2025 as Serge Pauwels replaces Sven Vanthourenhout as national coach. Two of the riders the new man in charge is most excited to work with, are double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel and Team Visma | Lease a Bike superstar, Wout van Aert.
"Most riders you select are leaders within their own team. In the national team, with that blue jersey, you suddenly have to coordinate them all. And... at the same time, let them connect with that new, young generation. Because they are of course drumming hard," Pauwels evaluates in conversation with Het Laatste Nieuws. "Of course you want to keep them sharp and ambitious. And give them their own chance from time to time. But the reality is that, as long as Remco keeps riding the roof off, they will have to be patient."
Given the former Team Sky, Dimension Data and Quick-Step rider Pauwels is relatively fresh out of the peloton himself, the 41-year-old Belgian is still in touch with the riders of the modern peloton and he's confident he can keep the positive energy around the men's national team going.
"My relationship with them is good. Four years ago I was still in the peloton myself, so I have raced with most of them - even Remco," Pauwels concludes. "And at the World Time Trial Championships in Leuven and Glasgow, Sven, Van Aert and I followed Evenepoel. I have heard both of them briefly this week. In January I will travel to the Calpe region, where we will see and speak to each other in more detail. At that time, their programs will be known and we can start looking ahead and planning."
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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