"We are not all called Tadej Pogacar" - Thijs Zonneveld understands Mathieu van der Poel's choice to end season before Il Lombardia
Cycling
This weekend, we're set for a mouth-watering showdown between Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and more at the season's final monument... Il Lombardia. Notably absent from the fight though, will be Mathieu van der Poel, who looks to have ended his campaign following his recent Gravel World Championships victory.
Having looked so good just a week or so ago though, could it have been possible for the Alpecin-Deceuninck superstar to push forward for Il Lombardia before ending his season? In his podcast In het Wiel, Dutch ex-pro turned expert analyst Thijs Zonneveld gives his thoughts on the debate.
"With the weight Van der Poel is giving now, you would think, pull on until the Il Lombardia," Zonneveld, who also competed alongside his Dutch compatriot at the recent Gravel World Championships, begins his assessment. "But I admit: that's very much thinking from the sidelines. We are now two weeks after his big goal, the World Championship, and somewhere the decompression also comes and you collapse. We are not all called Tadej Pogacar."
Zonneveld also believes that Il Lombardia might be a step too far for Van der Poel anyway given its renown as the climbers' monument. "He competed once and came 10th," the Dutchman recalls. "But he was beaten by a rider like George Bennett by six minutes. So I can well understand why he is not at the start here."
"Riders like Van Aert and Van der Poel have more chance in Liège-Bastogne-Liège than in Il Lombardia, where you just encounter 13-kilometre climbs," the analyst concludes. "And especially now that Pogacar is competing, Van der Poel's choice is completely understandable."
Tadej? You mean the guy who’s about to get a nice long (deserved) rest? You’re right, MVDP isn’t Tadej, likely he will be back racing in November and then like just about every year, race EVERY month until October except sometimes May. It would be time our experts explained it’s kind of normal for a rider to look for a moment in the year to take a (relatively short) break. Maybe if Tadej tried racing year round he’d be beaten a bit more often too.
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- 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
- Tricky one as while I agree Pogi and UAE are simply faster over a long distance which means Visma and MVP need to be as smart with energy use as can, it's also been proven in the past that one way for Pogi to be beaten is relentless attacks, to put him into the red. However that does require a rider to as good as sacrifice themselves for that one move which makes riskHoopoeChai07-04-2025
- Even if not technically against the rules, this is just bad etiquette and frankly I hope the rest of pelaton remembers Arkea don't care about etiquette or honoring tradition which means they shouldn't benifit from it.HoopoeChai07-04-2025
- The other issue is that Mad Petersen and Wout would have let MVDP do most of the work, as he kept showing he was stronger. MVDP did the strategy with the highest likelihood of victory, he just wasn't strong enough.acem8207-04-2025
- Crash did not help, Out of position for first attack did not help, illness did not help, pacing was not the best either. MVDP has never raced to his limits against other riders but this is his characteristics when he cracks, he cracks big time just like his first elite men WC RR. Against Pogi he needed to be optimized and he is notabstractengineer07-04-2025