🍿 Inside @AlpecinCycling Barbershop: @mathieuvdpoel and @JasperPhilipsen – PART 2 Counting the days until @LeTour, here is our second part of the untypical Q&A including fan questions! 📺 Full video: youtu.be/qzSyXRD3S5o #AlpecinDeceuninck #TDF2023 💛
Tour de France stage 1 "flirts with the limits of what I'm capable of" - Mathieu van der Poel
CyclingThursday, 29 June 2023 at 18:30
Mathieu van der Poel could win the first stage of the Tour de France and take on the first yellow jersey. A difficult scenario to put together, however a possible one for the Dutchman who will look forward to the explosive finale.
He, as many riders have upon arriving in Bilbao, has ridden a recon of the finale of the opening stage. "It was as I expected: it's really difficult, it flirts with the limits of what I'm capable of," he tells in a press conference this afternoon. "A lot also depends on the price situation. You can still return after the last climb in the final, but the last five hundred meters are also tough.”
After winning the Baloise Belgium Tour where he performed in the hills, he should be in great form. The climb, which features a grinding steep section, will suit better the climbers, or likes of Julian Alaphilippe or Tom Pidcock who are lightweights. Van der Poel, a heavyweight, could struggle, but in return has better chances in a sprint if that is to happen in Bilbao.
“The Basque Country is still heavier than Brittany. It will be tight, but I'll try. Although it will be difficult to follow the real punchers and climbers," he continues. Stage two is slightly different and less sharp, however the profile does allow for attacks and a first change of yellow jersey.
Van der Poel will have this as a big goal throughout the Tour de France, one where he will be chasing stage wins, but also look to play a big role in the leadout of Jasper Philipsen, a partnership which has worked quite well this week.
“I won't do it every day, but certainly when I feel good. I don't go green myself. I'm not busy collecting points when we go for a sprint with Jasper. We have already proven that we know what to do. We have confidence and for me there are still strong guys on the train."
Read also
claps 0visitors 2936
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Mas... Challenge Pogi!!! Ha Ha Haabstractengineer20-12-2024
- They (USA Cycling) raised their permit fee from from $95 to $125 and the minimum insurance charge went from $300 to $400.JoeyB20-12-2024
- Exactly who, Joey, is "they"? Flimsy, illogical conspiracy theories aside, it is in no one's interest (financial or otherwise) to "drive away small local events." Major cultural and macroeconomic factors are reducing ridership, but there is no "they" in this context.verve82520-12-2024
- And our virtual platforms allow us to "ride" famous place that we can't get to in person, which is a pretty fabulous aspect of this weird weird sport.RidesHills19-12-2024
- Which off-season are you referring to? The one after he won the Tour of California? The one after he won 3 stages and was on the podium of the Vuelta? The one after TJV screwed up, never put him away, and lost the Tour on the time trial? We've seen the guy hit the wall, lose energy, nearly fail, and lose races ("I'm dead") more than once. He's got a visible threshold and his fueling regimen is a clear weak spot. You'll need more detail to make this more than under defined insinuations .RidesHills19-12-2024
- Interesting analysis. And yet, I'm in the US, and at a recent wedding reception as a group of us older folks had to stand at a certain place to keep track of a thing, we got to talking, and every single one of us had a favorite rider, a favorite circuit of races, a moment when we fell in love with the sport, and a joy in the complexities of it all. None of us knew about the other's fandom until that moment. It's wonderful that these are my brothers-in-law, and we now know to talk about this when the spouses aren't listening. Point being: there are fans all over, and for US folks, the loss of GCN+ has been huge. As so often, it's the media bottleneck that matters more than anything else. Look at F1 in the US before Netflix, as an example.RidesHills19-12-2024
- On the one hand, what he says is trivial. Of course it's genetics. It always is, in any sport. That's just obvious. Look at Mondo Duplantis, whose sprinting speed is key to his pole vaulting, for example - he's just plain faster than other vaulters and good at the rest of the event as well. In cycling, even when you take the most genetically weird group of people and give them amazing training, some will be better than others, as well. Distributions are distributions and there are outliers and that's just that. Pogacar's body is built for this kind of thing, it seems, with him only recently having had to pick up skills that others have used all along. I'm still inclined to believe that these folks are using entirely legal means to arrive at their shockingly good performance, given how more senior riders kinda complain about (or at least comment on) the regimens and control over the nutrition and exercise and all that. And in every population, there are edge cases of truly exceptional behavior.RidesHills19-12-2024
- And it’s likely going to get worse. They are going all-out to drive away small local events which are where a lot of new riders come from. They want fee income and Olympic medals. That’s all.JoeyB19-12-2024
- Oh Lordspock12319-12-2024
- Interesting suggestion, fo you think testing Tadej’s (or Bolts’ or so many others’) parents would have given us a preview of his potential then or what criteria do you have to pick parents with?Mistermaumau19-12-2024