"What can you do with his type of rider in the Tour?" - Mathieu van der Poel's father Adrie notices lack of stages for true classics specialists
CyclingTuesday, 16 July 2024 at 10:56
Mathieu van der Poel went to the Tour de France with the ambition to win a stage himself and contribute to the success of his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen in the bunch finishes. While the latter goal goes relatively well with two stages to Philipsen's name, Van der Poel himself is still yet to even enter the top 10 in a stage and the third week won't present the Dutchman with many opportunities to turn the tides either.
How does the world champion deal with the situation? "It's tiring, but in a nice way. We have already won, so from my point of view the Tour can no longer be ruined for us," thinks Mathieu's father Adrie van der Poel. "I think it will only become clear in the coming week. That was the case last year too, when he was really growing. It was not an easy Tour, with changeable weather. Now it is first a matter of surviving for the coming tough stages," he said in Café Koers.
Van der Poel himself noted that it is difficult to force something, which his father agrees with. "What can you do with his type of rider in the Tour? Okay, he was still useful in the sprint for Jasper, but your own chance is minimal if you make a Tour that looks like this. You can also see that with other riders, who - anonymous is a big word - cannot do their thing."
Mathieu doesn't mind anymore, his father thinks. "I think he's accepted it. He knows the ambitions of the team going to the Tour. The green jersey was taken away a bit by that disqualification, after which it was a fight for that stage win. That's not easy either, because there are a lot of people struggling who don't have much business being there," is his view on the hectic sprint approach.
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- It would not surprise me at all if Primoz announced his retirement at the and of this season.
santiagobenites10-07-2025 - Alpecin-deceuninck would try their hardest to keep Van der Poel, who would probably not move. Also, Van der Poel is good friends with his teammates, so he wouldn't want to leave them. In terms of bring a lead out man, while Van der Poel is an excellent lead out man... there's not much he can do to help Merlier. Merlier beat LiDL-TREK's 4-man leadout for Milan... all by himself.
Llywelynglyndwr10-07-2025 - Obviously, they want you to rest as little as possible, they want you to waste a lot of time in ceremonies and press conferences.
maria2024202410-07-2025 - A hill that has a deceptive beginning and super steep last 300m, was really interesting to see how this worked out. Del Toro was clearly the winner but only took the lead with may 15m to go as he rounded August and thus passed Covi as well. With a lunge, Covi could have been on the podium, which is what got Álvarez there ahead of a flying Großschartner. The whole race situation changed in the last 15m, fascinating. The German commentary was all about how you can just never predict because of those last 300m, and sure enough, they were right.RidesHills10-07-2025
- I doubt very much MVDP would be interested, besides the price of breaking a contract that runs 3.5 more years and 8-9 more with Canyon, that would announce the end of negotiations in cycling, contracts would be rewritten to have iron-clad payout clauses if they’re shown to ve worthless. Also just don’t think he’s the kind to play musical chairs, some put too much emphasis on money and happily, he isn’t one of them.Mistermaumau10-07-2025
- I would let him go now, take any cash they can get, rebuild the classics team. Alpecin is failing apart a bit around MVDP. lots of guys are leaving and sponsors. I’d make a play for the biggest classics name on the block - including MVDP. Quick-Step could pay more than Alpecin, especially with Remco gone, and Specialized could pay much more than Canyon. And Remco will never be satisfied, or realize, his biggest problem is not the team. he isn’t that good of a climber.mij10-07-2025
- I would let him go and return to the teams roots. I’d get rid of him now while he is still under contract. deploy the money elsewhere.mij10-07-2025
- This lasted wellslappers6610-07-2025
- Pog 2025 is supposedly better than Pog 24 who was already better than Pog 23 and all previous Pogs, Evenepoel is still a youngster but looking at Pog at his age, I doubt you can say they’re not closely matched. Affini had wind assistance, no mention of KV?Mistermaumau10-07-2025
- One the one hand yes, on the other, TT is more of a measure of individual performance than positioning during hours of being pulled. In a tdf where each rider is alone all the way, it’d be interesting to see how the GC would look.Mistermaumau10-07-2025
It had a gravel stage and he was not in form for the 1st 10 days. The tour waits for no one
Add more gravel, pebbles stages. Or have a flat stage with punchy finish.
Grand Tours used to be nearly all gravel, cobbles and bricks. I'd love for at least one stage with 100km of gravel to be a requirement for them, along with a mandatory circuit race.
Alas the tour is about all rounders who can TT and climb . VDP is an all rounder but not a tour rider . He would leave Vin and Pog for dead on cyclocross but no point moaning about would or could of.
VDP is not an all-arounder. Pogi and guys like Valverde are all-arounders. *Cyclocross is a totally different discipline.
He's not an all-rounder if he can't climb.