"Who can be sure of being stronger than Van der Poel?" - Cyrille Guimard thinks Mathieu van der Poel will win Liege-Bastogne-Liege
CyclingThursday, 11 April 2024 at 09:01
Racing in Flanders is over and everyone has to bow before the king of this classics season - Mathieu van der Poel - and Cyclism'Actu's analyst Cyrille Guimard is no exception. According to the Frenchman, Van der Poel will be a man to beat at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege next Sunday too, not seeing many possibilities for other riders to dethrone the reigning World Champion.
"The way he wins, we are in a dimension that goes beyond that of the great riders. This victory on Sunday at Paris-Roubaix is art. The way he slides on the cobbles, his trajectories, the speed with which he goes through the corners on the cobbles, it's well placed... everything was beautiful, there was nothing to take off."
"He is quite simply an artist, as he is in cyclo-cross. In all his victories, there is the trace of someone very talented, but also of someone who brings something extra. He is a character who, in the world of cycling, is absolutely extraordinary because in addition to being a rider, he is the business manager of his own team. It has everything to be appreciated."
"He will win it all the more easily because he has no pressure... and I'm not particularly talking about this year. He has no obligation to win, he has no obligation to put his team to work all day, and if you don't drop him at the Redoute, it will be much more difficult to beat him."
"A puncher-sprinter-roller like him, you can't drop him on a 2-mile bump when he knows he can have the win behind. So yes, he can win, he's a challenger for the win. And if he wasn't, how many would be initially then? Who can be sure of being stronger than Van der Poel on Liege-Bastogne-Liege? For me, he is capable of it this year."
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He looses a watts/kg climbing contest every time to Tadej or Remco, see Flanders last year.
yeah Tadej was 8.0 and MVDP is 7.8. over the longer climbs of LBL it will be tough on Mathieu. but he looks a little thinner this year. will be a real great race
I sincerely doubt that you have access to extensive W/Kg data for both but if you do then tell me at what duration you are looking and why.
Looking only at elite world level cyclists power ranges from almost 25W/Kg for sprinters over 1s to not even 4.5W/Kg over 4h.
Unless you have the complete range of values of both riders from instant burst to 6h you have no way of predicting anything based on just a few figures.
Each rider will have their sweet spot and will prepare for a theoretical race to exploit that sweet spot where they have the advantage but that cannot take into account the effects of race evolution on the day or who gets to benefit from riding behind others, especially away from their sweet spot.
If they’re duoing along at the front an TP times it right he can maybe pull out a 30-45s gap on the most favourable climbs but then he’s on his own the rest of the way at the risk of letting MvdP regroup with a group/climber and work well in combining their strengths to haul TP back.
We all saw MvdP has no real problems with 20+% gradients and 5-6 minute efforts are not his weakness, all the longer climbs are not very steep so it will be far more interesting than many seem to be expecting.
I reiterate 2/3 TP, 1/3 MvdP