"They have already received more media attention than if we had won 10 races" - Some discontent over Van Aert & Van der Poel's return from fellow pros
Cyclocross
The cyclocross returns of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert are imminent and for the more regular cyclocross pros, this is the last weekend before the superstar duo are back to likely take all the headlines. For some though, the amount of media attention Van Aert and Van der Poel have already received is raising discontent.
"Enough has been written about it. Even before they have ridden a race, they have already received more media attention than if we had won 10 races in a season. I think that is a shame," says former European champion Michael Vanthourenhout in quotes collected by Sporza ahead of Saturday afternoon's X2O Badkammers Trofee in Herentals, a race in which the Belgian actually took the victory.
"I don't need to be in the media. But it will still bother other riders that it is only about those two in this period," continues Vanthourenhout a bit frustratedly. "It will indeed be more difficult to reach the podium. But for us nothing really changes. It is our job and we try to do our best at every race."
Vanthourenhout isn't the only season-long crosser set to see his chances to shine limited by Van Aert and Van der Poel's return though. "We'll see next week," says Lars van der Haar. "Let them make it a beautiful race."
"We now know their calendar, so we also know the matches in which it will be extra difficult to win," analyses Vanthourenhout's teammate, Eli Iserbyt when asked about the superstars' return. "It makes the appointments of this weekend extra important."
In the opinion of Niels Vandeputte, it is also an opportunity to test himself against the best. "We have to try to get as close to them as possible. I see it as a challenge to share the podium with them, like last year," he evaluates. "It's great that they'll both be back soon. They belong in cyclo-cross, where they grew up. It will be a bit more difficult for the real cyclo-cross riders to win prizes, but we have to accept that."
Michael Vanthourenhout remporte la manche d'Herentals du @X2OTrofee ! 👏 #RTLsports pic.twitter.com/wCj1QX41uA
— RTL sports (@RTLsportsbe) December 14, 2024
i know that virtually every pro who races with wout and mathieu likes or at least respects them, both in the road peloton and in cx. but as popular as they are amongst their peers, it’s gotta be just immensely frustrating for hard-working guys like vanthourenhout, lars and eli to deal with the staggering dominance of MVDP and WVA. given all the effort, the physical and emotional energy that gets poured into the goal of WINNING, it must be a tremendous psychological shock to the system EVERY SINGLE YEAR, YEAR AFTER YEAR to have your whole season, your whole mindset, all of your ambitions and expectations change with something akin to the flip of a switch the day that wout and mathieu decide to line up.
Yeah ok but this is the story of thousands ifnot millions of athletes across every sport, most train just as hard and sacrifice just as much but when it comes to the big time, there are always a couple better than you who everyone is going to want to see or discuss. Why should it be any different for level 2 than 3 or 6 or 20? The majority of fans and media rightly follow their own stories plus those of the very best. PS it’s kind of insulting (of MV) to subliminally suggest that MVDP and WVA don’t equally give their all for training and races, you don’t get to that level by taking it easy, even if it looks like it sometimes.
umm, i wasn’t “subliminally” suggesting anything about the effort level of wout and mathieu. those guys are training fanatics, duh. what’s DIFFERENT about the cx season from other sports is that guys like eli and michael ARE the ones at the top, racing to WIN, all season UNTIL the first day mathieu shows up, then all that is suddenly OVER. i honestly can’t think of another sport that has that kind of situation. where the top guys’ season all just goes down the drain EVERY YEAR with the return in mid to late season of ONE GUY.
Like plenty of others, and he probably wishes he was MVDP but would settle for WVA.
that’s the long and short of it, right? i remember reading a story last year on Velonews about eli, right after mathieu came back then. iserbyt said “every year i’ve truly believed that THIS would be the year my efforts finally allow me to challenge van der poel, but the time comes when you have to admit that fairy tales are just fairy tales…” SOUL CRUSHING, right? all these guys who just happened to be in their prime right when the strongest, most dominant cx racer of all time is in his. way it goes. that’s the nature of individual sports. every once in a while fortune serves up ONE person who is not only vastly more gifted, but also singularly driven to win. watching this champions is thrilling most of the time, but i can also feel for the men and women who have dedicated their lives to their sport only to do battle with someone they really can’t hope to defeat.
btw, i read your posts regularly and appreciate that you’ve always got something interesting to say and you stimulate lots of discussion here. happy holidays, brother.
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