Pro-cycling thread

MVDP will do LBL as cooling down ride tomorrow?

There was a 90 degree left immediately after that time checkpoint

Is the MVDP hype train back in the station?
I was getting bored of swooning over just Van Aert.

always glad to help the hype!
not expecting much from him if he should ride it though, after that solo today. Wout's not riding tomorrow. first big 2020 Wout vs Mat showdown is next Sunday, Gent-Wevelgem

MVDP’s road wins have seemed more epic somehow than Wout Van Aert’s despite Wout winning Strade and Milan San Remo.

And two tour stages...

PCS.
WVA 452
MVDP 538

I think that's because they were. Wins from farther out, from the front in a sprint, from a beaten position, riding away when he chooses to... looks like most of his wins were purely done on his own, with raw power over 'traditional' team work, timing and smart riding. (Admittedly, I'm a fanboy, happy to be proven wrong, and I rooted for WVA in the Strade Bianche, great stuff)

GP4k clinchers have always tested well aerodynamically, they might have found that outweighs any Crr penalty.

Both MVDP and WVA are both great fun to watch racing... and both seem to be pretty humble and down to earth off the bike too, which I think goes a long way with the fans.

I think MVDP rides a lot more tactically than WVA - I guess maybe because he doesn’t have such a strong team to rely on for support. I’ll always see him as more of an underdog for that reason. I think he rides with more panache than WVA too, but maybe I’m just a fanboy.

WVA seems to be the more powerful rider tho, and is great in bunch sprint even with the best of them as we saw at the Tour. I still cant get over how he is able to win bunch sprints against the big guns and then sit on the front in the high mountains with the GC guys the following day.

I think WVA moving up to world tour when he did has really made him progress so much into the amazing all rounder he is now.... I’m exited to see how MVDP evolves when he moves to a big team with other top tier riders.

I’m pretty far from ‘knowledgable’ on these things tho, so this is only the opoinion of a slightly more intersted than average fan!

I’m exited to see how MVDP evolves when he moves to a big team with other top tier riders.

He's got another three years on his contract with Alpecin-Fenix.

Wow - didn’t know it was that long.

From what I’ve been told, Canyon pay the vast majority of his A-F salary. Can’t help but think what kind of a rider he would be now if he accepted a smaller salary at a bigger team last year (or however long ago it was he renewed)

I think he would have a very big salary at a big team as well ;-)

The Alpecin-Fenix team is built around MVDP, so I guess that suits him fine

Didn’t forget those, they were awesome!
His talent is unquestioned, but he hasn’t had a win like MVDP’s Amstel win yet.

Or a 408 day winning streak at Cyclocross.

It doesn’t give him the guaranteed grand tour entries though. Though his name alone might win wild card entries to the tour.

Oh no doubt! Didnt mean to insinuate that he hadn't been offered big money elsewhwere..... just that with the help of Canyon A-F were able to offer him enough to make him stay..... which i can only presume would have had to be more than he'd been offered by any of the bigger teams.

I guess maybe he also prefered the big fish/small pond as oposed to the smaller fish/big pond option.

Purely making my own assumptions here though!

Does AF give him more flexibility to race xc and cx rather than focus purely on road given his Tokyo ambitions?

Signing a long contract with AF means a new team will have to pay big to extract him so AF will benefit regardless of the contract he signs with new team

Pretty sure he can do what he wants, he is freaking Mathieu Van Der Poel...

I expect Canyon would be very happy to see him win races on their CX and mountain bikes all year round, so doubt they will have an issue.

The question I have is how much freedom someone like Tom Pidcock will have to diversify?

Seems @UCI_cycling didn’t like the new @EFprocycling Palace kit... All riders and Ds fined for “Non-compliant clothing during podium obligations” what happened @matthewcbeaudin ?

Thanks

AF has talked about wanting the CCC the World Tour license next season, although Circus-Wanty Gobert grabbed it. They're currently 14th in the UCI ranking, and the Roodhooft bros are keen on getting into the Grand Tours, especially the TdF; they would even think of sacrificing some of their main star's other ambitions.

The chance of getting a wildcard is pretty big if you're the best Pro Conti team around. Also the benefit of continued Pro Conti status is: you are not required to show up at every World tour race, so you can pick and choose.

Somewhere, Tom Mueesen is crying.

What is non compliant clothing?

Buggers up the rgb on the cameras i think . A bit like out of gamut in print make screens go all herringbone fuzzy and sends people over the edge . Its a no no in tv land umpalumpa school.

has to be some sock length pish surely