Successor of Mathieu van der Poel continues to impress with 6th place at Dwars door Vlaanderen: "I had some doubts, but they can go away now"
Cycling
Visma | Lease a Bike and especially Neilson Powless stole the show today at Dwars door Vlaanderen, but behind we witnessed an interesting battle for places of honor. In the mix was the revelation of Volta a Catalunya - Tibor del Grosso. In absence of Mathieu van der Poel, the 21-year-old kept up with the best and ultimately grabbed a fine 6th place.
"That’s certainly not bad," he summarized briefly for WielerFlits afterwads. "Unfortunately, I was just too far ahead of Berg ten Houte, where Visma | Lease a Bike stretched the peloton to the side. I was behind the gaps there. It’s not that I was so surprised, because I knew they could make that approach tough. But I didn’t expect so many guys to be sent out. That creates gaps that you can’t close quickly."
Del Grosso was by far one of the most active pawns behind the leading group of four. "I thought we were going to come back one more time, but Van Baarle rode very defensively. We just couldn’t get it done. I never believed in it again after that. It never went so well, but with the six pursuers I thought we could make an attempt. Unfortunately it didn’t go fast enough. I wanted to try and a few riders jumped towards me."
After his strong Volta a Catalunya, the U23 cyclocross world champion continues to confirm his potential with impressive performances on the road too. "This means a lot, especially because I had a bit of a cold and was sick when I left Catalunya [Del Grosso abandoned ahead of last stage, ed.]. I had some doubts, but I am glad that they can go away now. What does this mean for the future? We will see."
Dutch fans certainly won't complain if Del Grosso was to become the successor of Mathieu van der Poel both on road and in the field...
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- To quote the article: riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike. Not coolmij08-04-2025
- I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.mij08-04-2025
- change the cycling forever? relax, please.
maria2024202408-04-2025 - His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- If I remember well, Pidcock slowed, whether out of respect or strategically or just happy he could ease off a bit, only he knows. Your point?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I believe Mathieu rather gets beaten by a stronger rider than one who raced smarter. That is why he wanted to team up with Pogacar to drop the JV riders and Mads who were not helping in the chase of the first group since they had a teammate up front.JoostMehrtens08-04-2025
- Just shows that LA is not truly repentant. JUSTICE was served. No winner, no second , no third on the podium for those 7 years. No real winners could be determined, ever. Lance got to keep most of his money , he really should can it . He is toxic to cycling.dave08-04-2025