The master at work 👑 in Antwerpen, Belgium Mathieu van der Poel 🥇 Men Elite CX @SportPic_Agency #CXWorldCup
"I don't have the shape to ride the entire cross full throttle" - Wout van Aert rides tactically to second at Antwerp World Cup
CyclocrossSaturday, 23 December 2023 at 18:00
For the second day running, Wout van Aert had to settle for a second-placed finish behind Mathieu van der Poel at the latest round of UCI World Cup action in Antwerp on Saturday afternoon.
"I felt quite good actually. I was in a good position at the beginning," van Aert recalls in his post-race interview. For this race, the Belgian actually took a different tactic. “I think I rode this race a bit more conservatively. I tried to drive between the wheels. That was the right tactic. Why did I choose that? Because I don't have the shape to ride the entire cross full throttle. Now I was able to accelerate in the last two laps with Eli Iserbyt.”
With the likes of van der Poel and Tom Pidcock having bad starts, van Aert was able to get underway well. “I was rather happy with the position I had and tried to hold on to it. It went quite quickly in the first lap. I thought it was impressive how quickly Mathieu came along. After that we also saw that he was the better one," van Aert admits. "I'm glad I didn't get burned by that today and chose to ride my own course.”
Although van der Poel was far out of sight once he attacked, van Aert did well to keep close to the front and out-kicked Iserbyt on the last lap to take second place. "Today I felt a lot better than yesterday and I'm happy with how it ended," he concludes.
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- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024
- Keep telling yourself that Remco but you not only have Tadeg to beat but Jonas!frieders320-12-2024
- Seems farfetched - I agree. Mas has beaten him once. Giro d'Emillia I think - 2022mobk20-12-2024
- Barring injuries, by the time Pogacar's dominance fads there will be lots of new young talent. Pogacar is about 1 1/2 years older than Remco. That's nothing.Sweep20-12-2024
- I actually don’t find that too impressive. In my later forties I did similar figures for a 3.5% gradient as a total nobody with no wind assistance. Am sure there’s margin for improvement there, especially looking at all the names on that list.Mistermaumau20-12-2024
- Jonas', was 6 years agospock12320-12-2024
- The race where he overnight suddenly turned nuclear after being packfodder at best for several years. His Sky days after that Vuelta and Pogačar’s last season shall remain the darkest post Lance stuff cycling has witnessed. Good riddance Froome.
UltimateOpportunist20-12-2024 - Finishing the Vuelta seems to be a reasonably attainable goal. Getting on the team to do that will be the more difficult challenge.
santiagobenites20-12-2024