"The moment Tadej Pogacar and Tom Pidcock accelerated, the light started to go out" - Lennert van Eetvelt unable to challenge podium at Strade Bianche 2025
Cycling
Lennert van Eetvelt's hopes were high heading into Strade Bianche 2025, with the Belgian aiming of a podium finish. As it turned out the though, the best the Lotto leader could hope for was a 9th placed finish, nearly five minutes down on race winner Tadej Pogacar.
Afterwards, the Belgian was brutally honest about his own performance and its limitations, noting how once the big attacks started, there was simply no response in his legs. “From the moment Tadej Pogacar and Tom Pidcock accelerated, the light started to go out. The last hour was really a crawl to the finish,” reflected the 23-year-old in his post-race comments collected by Het Nieuwsblad. “I am not the only one who was exhausted. This is truly a race of dying swans.”
As mentioned, in the end it was 9th place for Van Eetvelt at the line. Although not the podium he may have hoped for initially, a top-10 finish gives the Belgian plenty of reason to be positive. "I'm especially happy that I reached the finish, I actually don't know if I'm where I want to be yet," he concluded his assessment. "What did I think when they accelerated? Not much, my legs did say a lot..."
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— Lotto Cycling Team (@lottocycling_) March 8, 2025
😮💨👏🏼 @LennertVEetvelt pic.twitter.com/X51tDB7rl5
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- Gee, they cant keep their mouths shut for 15 days! Talk after Roubaix if the man didnt deliver, not now.Caralladas31-03-2025
- hoping wout can “kick start” his season at de ronde just shows why hope is a terrible strategy. the hardest race of the classics season with both pog and mathieu on stratospheric form. good luck. and waiting for mvdp to eventually be “not as good” isn’t a great plan either, i think. matthieu only seems to keep getting BETTER.OCexile31-03-2025
- Too much amatuer psychology. How about this: "he was never as good as when he had not suffered multiple career-threatening injuries." What is happening to him is what happened to Alaphilippe, Bernal, and others. You will notice that his two major peers -- MVDP and Mads - are both at their all time best. You will also note that neither is coming off of anything like the same last 18 months that Wout is. Go back to 2022, then roll the tape forward with Wout remaining healhty and one of them having had multiple traumatic falls. Odds are good he'd be at his dominant best and they would not.MidnightRider31-03-2025
- Raymond Poulidor, Alfredo Binda.... where do we stop. If you want to retitle it is Primoz Roglic the bestr rider never to win the tour in the last ten or 20 years then that might be betterslappers6631-03-2025
- Let me help you. Alfredo BindaUpHill31-03-2025
- He'll certainly last it and prob ride his own race, at the front 😁
leedorney31-03-2025 - Gaio Primus Caesar Roglus, Rome is waiting for you, Imperator :-)).
maria2024202431-03-2025 - And he probably wasn’t even at the limit ;-) Have to wonder how much Mads could catch up if he’d tune his physique to be as sharp as MVDPs’Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Respect for giving Van Eetvelt credit there.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- He’s already a star for me for HAVING complained about it, the recent trend having been, let them then try to take advantage by making them sign NDAs ;-)Mistermaumau31-03-2025