"They are so thin... I almost get scared when I see them walking" - Adrie van der Poel fears the nutritioning in cycling has taken things way too far
Cycling
Father of Mathieu van der Poel and himself a successful ex-pro Adrie van der Poel believes that the modern cyclist is far too sharp (and thin) and that health is gradually becoming a problem. He discussed this sensitive subject with ex-pro Nathan Van Hooydonck in De Avondetappe.
Adrie van der Poel begins by drawing a comparison to the female side of the sport. "In the past, almost all female cyclists had anorexia and when I look at today's cyclists, I almost get scared when I see them walking. They are already so thin and all the food has to be weighed. I am glad that Mathieu eats a greasy hamburger every now and then and that he doesn't care about that nutrition app. When I look at the Tour, I see cyclists of 1.80 meters with a weight of 60 kilograms. That is really not healthy."
Van Hooydonck, who previously spent three years in Jumbo-Visma - a team notoriously known for its advanced nutritioning approach, counters: "Mathieu can go eat a hamburger because he is exceptionally talented. If other riders do that, they are no longer competing to win. You race to win and to get the best out of yourself, don't you?"
For Van der Poel, nutrition is just one aspect of the whole story. He believes the cycling has developed way too quickly over the past decade and it's become all about attempts to find even marginal gains (such as the Lazor 'alien' helmets introduced by Visma | Lease a Bike). "It's not just nutrition, but also the altitude training (...). A lot has changed in cycling in a very short period of time."
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If your racing, even at the ametur level, like a lot us, weight is very important. I'm 51 but if I'm preparing for race I will only drink ensure for two weeks just to drop those last few pounds before the event. When I'm not training hard I eat normally and I'll be ten pounds heavier than race weight. I also boxed competitively from 11 years until 24 years old, so making weight is a normal thing in my mind. Most people probably don't understand but cycling is my passion and has been since I was a kid. I've invested quite a bit of my life into it and don't even get me started on all the broken bones from the crashes, but I've had some serious ones, almost life ending.
Much like the cyclists, there’s not a lot of meat on this story.
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