+1
22-04-2025 17:08
22-04-2025 09:37
+3
22-04-2025 05:14
+2
21-04-2025 04:14
+0
21-04-2025 04:10
18-04-2025 05:11
18-04-2025 05:03
17-04-2025 08:43
17-04-2025 01:21
16-04-2025 20:10
+1
OCexile
yup, that’s sad. marriage is a tough proposition under the best circumstances. i get the FEELING that one of the reasons why jonas doesn’t race as much as people would like is that he fights to put family first? again, im not in a position to say, but we learn from the mistakes of our colleagues if we’re lucky. in the professional culture i come from, naval aviation, marriages tragically drop like flies and there’s sometimes nothing w we can do about it. but i TIRED to make the little differences where i could and ended up one of the lucky ones.22-04-2025 17:08
+1
OCexile
yeah, certainly that’s beyond anything i know about tom’s life, but, as you intuit, it’s hard to make anyone else happy when you are profoundly UNhappy.22-04-2025 09:37
+3
OCexile
love tom. smart, interesting guy. and he’s dead right about mathieu, i think. if van der poel had gotten stuck on a team like ineos or visma or soudal, it would have radically shortened his career. fortunately he was smart enough to prioritize freedom with alpecin over the giant contract he could have gotten years earlier with a bigger team. remember that alpecin was just a continental team when mvdp keep signing contract extensions with them for short money. it’s certainly all worked out over time though. maximum freedom — probably the most in the entire peloton — and huge deals now with both alpecin and canyon. tom was such a GREAT talent i wish his career had played out the same way.22-04-2025 05:14
+2
OCexile
so pog has been busy. maximum efforts at MSR, de RONDE, ROUBAIX, now AMSTEL… that’s a lot. if he’s wearing down a bit then i think remco is very likely on the opposite trajectory. LIÉGE could be interesting.21-04-2025 04:14
+0
OCexile
chapeau21-04-2025 04:10
+2
OCexile
Oumaïma Rayane seems like fairly credible evidence for the existence of at least some version of god.18-04-2025 05:11
+3
OCexile
so what does TOO FAST even mean? stupid non-article article…18-04-2025 05:03
+0
OCexile
amen.17-04-2025 08:43
+1
OCexile
there are loads of people and pundits who spend a lot of time griping about how few races some of the big names compete in these days. i think it’s a dumb argument personally but to each his own. in the case of jonas, though, i think a very limited calendar makes a ton of sense and wouldn’t need to be explained by a deep fear of crashing. to me, jonas really does seem like a pure grand tour racer. the explosiveness needed for even a climber’s classic, like il lombardia, isn’t really there when heads up with guys like remco and tadej. with the exception of the occasional MIND BLOWING time trial effort, jonas is like death by a thousand cuts. over the course of days he just grinds and grinds until a breaking point. a could see him just doing the Tour and the lead up prep races, like tour de suisse. in a year like this, MAAAAYYBEEE the world championships because of the course. Now, if you throw in some (pretty understandable) skittishness about getting in another wreck, well, whatevs. wout is another story. about that i would just say that wouter is a total bad-ass and when it comes to mastering one’s own fear, van aert seems like a one-percenter to me. remember that it’s not just the crashes from the last couple years that he carries around in his head, it’s also that horrific one from the TT at the tour in like 2019, which was the worst of all of them. i don’t think he’s skipping races because he’s afraid. all of what i’ve said is just a feeling. i can’t back it up and wouldn’t try. it’s just a sloppy, half thought out IT KINDA SEEMS TO ME THAT… but it really does seem like that. to me.17-04-2025 01:21
+1
OCexile
yeah, van der poel’s ability to suffer is, i think, almost unparalleled. years ago, after an absolutely savage cx in namur when wout just couldn’t stay with mvdp in the last half of the last lap, van aert said, “it has always been a great quality of mathieu’s that he can ride far beyond his limit. i’m capable of riding a very good finale as well, but often he can just go a little deeper.” you see it in that classic Amstel Gold from 2019, and in every case where van der poel crosses the line and utterly collapses. people who don’t like him have always said that’s for “dramatic effect”, but it’s so obviously something that only happens after his most extreme efforts, such as his epic bonk in tirreno adriatico when he barely held off a charging pogacar on a freezing cold day. mathieu is 30, so just a few years down the road he won’t have that ability any longer. i’m glad i’ve gotten to watch so much of him while he does.16-04-2025 20:10