"They call them sh*t races, but that's where you learn to learn to race" - former National coach on downfall of Dutch cycling
Cycling
Dutch men's cycling is not in a nice spot. Despite the overwhelming success of Mathieu van der Poel, the situation is far from ideal as there seems to be precisely only the soon 30 years old Van der Poel who can deliver success for the traditional cycling nation. Meanwhile Belgium have Remco Evenepoel, Wout Van Aert, Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier, and the list goes on...
Yes, Dutch cycling have the phenomenal Mathieu van der Poel. But... where is everyone else? "There are several reasons for that," former National Team coach Egon van Kessel begins in an interview for RIDE Magazine. He draws a comparison to their natural rivals from Belgium who, contrary to Netherlands, can always count on multiple top-class leaders. "First of all, this has been the case throughout history. Belgium is a racing country, the Netherlands is a cycling country. That is a world of difference. Racing is a culture that we do not have."
"A very important step in this is that the Netherlands has taken the path of data. Big teams in the Netherlands select riders based on data, strength, power, VO2max, I don't know what. The team leaders who guide these men, their plans are based on training. That has led to us forgetting how to race. The Dutch only train. If they get forty days of racing, that's a lot. While as a young rider you really have to learn how to race. You have to race to learn, learn how to win next time. But we don't learn that."
"They have remained old-fashioned to some extent. According to some, I belong to the old cycling. I am very proud of that. Winning a race is still done with the same tactics as in the twenties and thirties of the last century. You have to teach those strategies and the lessons of racing to young riders. That happens far too little in the Netherlands."
"In Belgium, they race a lot more. In all UCI .1 races, you see almost all Belgian pros," Van Kessel, who spent some time in races alongside Dutch conti team BEAT Cycling, points out. "Jumbo-Visma? They were almost never there. I'll tell you in jargon: they call them shit races, with narrow roads and bad asphalt."
The coach believes that's a pretentious point of view that hurts Dutch cycling: "That's where you learn to race, that's where you learn to steer, you get more agility, you learn how to ride concentrated for five hours, you learn to fall on your face, because these are difficult races. That's simply necessary."
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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