"When you see how close he is to Pogacar..." - Mathieu van der Poel's time trialing abilities continue to bewilder

Mathieu van der Poel is one of the best cyclists on the planet, and that ability translates to almost every single side of the sport. He is far from a specialist in time trialing, but this Saturday afternoon he has once again come very close to a win, which is a strong argument for his innate talent.

"We have, of course, seen him ride fantastic time trials. That first time in the Tour, for example, when he rode a time trial in the yellow jersey (in 2021, ed.)... That was so bizarrely good, it made absolutely no sense," Thijs Zonneveld argued on the In de Waaier podcast. "He finished fifth, thirty seconds behind Pogacar. He had never sat on a time trial bike before".

This has, over the years, happened in other occasions. As a heavyweight rider and someone with great endurance, the physical abilities are there to have a good capacity against the clock. But this is hardly a priority for the Alpecin - Premier Tech rider.

"That he can deliver enormous power is completely clear. But he has never really focused on time trials. But he did finish fifth twice in a Tour time trial, and he came third in the final time trial of the Giro and second in the first time trial in Budapest (in 2022, ed.). But there have also been years when he hardly rode any time trials".

"The focus has shifted even more to the classics and cyclocross. And how much time can you spend on a time trial bike if you also go mountain biking?" he questions. "Last year he finished eighteenth in the Tour time trial, and he simply had the yellow jersey then, so he had to go for it. That was okay, but not very special. Over 36 minutes, Pogacar put a minute and a half between himself and him".

The Dutchman almost rode to the stage win at the Tour de Suisse, being beaten by Tadej Pogacar only, and by less than a second. This is without the extensive time spent in the aero tunnel and with equipment that is refined to the tiniest of details - as is the case with all of the main overall classification riders.

"Then what he is doing today is truly remarkable. When you see how close he is to Pogacar now, even though he couldn't possibly have spent that much time on it... When you see him riding through corners in that time trial... It is part technique, and part really going for it. When he really goes for it, it is truly fascinating to watch. It is really interesting to see how he rides corners. It is not that he rides very fast into corners, brakes very hard, and then throws himself into the turns, but his exit speed is extremely good".

The Dutch pundit argues that van der Poel's bike handling skills is what then takes his time trialing to another level, as he is able to gain time on rivals where it can't be taken back.

"He makes use of the entire road, always. We see that on the road bike and cyclocross bike, and therefore also on the time trial bike. But that means that sometimes you steer into the corner less aggressively. It doesn't mean you should just throw yourself into the corners, because that doesn't necessarily mean you go faster".

"It is, of course, an innate skill. He has done it a lot, of course, but you can't train as well as he does it," he argues. "You can teach it to some extent, reflect on it, but what he does is high-level cornering. At Visma | Lease a Bike, they really made a study of it: what is so special about Van der Poel's cornering? That is where they arrived at this point: that he exits corners much faster. Faster than Van Aert, too, who can also ride fantastic corners".

This technique is part of van der Poel's key to success on the road, as many have argued before that he is able to save energy efficiently by steering into corners in his own way. In races such as Paris-Roubaix, where he is a three-time winner, this is absolutely key in the many technical sections, and comes as fruit of his extensive past in cyclocross.

"There, it is partly a matter of throwing, slamming, and daring, but nothing ever goes wrong for him. He rides over the shoelaces of spectators; he really uses the entire road. He also lets his bike roll once he is past the apex. You need a lot of control over the bike for that".