The 54th edition of the Ardennes Classic will go down as the best ever. Listen to JB and Lance discuss the stunning victory on what Lance calls the best bike race he has ever seen.
I heard a rumour that whenever a guy was about to go to the front in the MVDP group, they got a glimpse of his power data and immediately drifted to the back to contemplate the best way to fake a mechanical.
VDP is aiming for Olympic Gold in Mountainbiking in 2020. Regarding to what he did between his initial attack and the last 5km in his own words: He attacked early to survive the Kruisberg and the Eyserbosweg with a little head start, but he couldn't get away because Izaguirre wouldn't work with him. He then got reeled in at the worst possible moment, and when Alaphilippe etc went on the Kruisberg, he couldn't react because of that earlier attack. He then decided to sit in the group and save his legs and he hoped he maybe get a nice top 10 result. He got frustrated that the bigger group wouldn't work together, so he attacked again on the Bemelerberg, 8km from the finish, and got 4 guys with him. That group worked together immediately, and he was just picking up guys one by one. But he said he didn't think he was still riding for the win up until he saw Alaphilippe and Fuglsang after that last corner and he just went all or nothing because nobody would pull with him anymore. It turned out he got everything
We love u Lance! Still coming back to this podcast after having watched the highlights. Just to see a legend like you be speechless. That says a lot 😮😅.
Yeah, lance should be doing more research on the backround on people like mvdp who I guess will probably take a few weeks off and go into mtn biking and continue to destroy races. More research, Lance.
Superb analysis. Eye for the details (Bouke Molema swinging). Watching this for the 5th time months after this unbelievable spectacle. Thanks guys. High respect for this broadcast.
Dear Lance, Like you I've been watching bike races for over 30 years and I agree. This was the best bike racing I have ever seen. Van der Poel is a sensational and very talented classic rider. As a Dutchman and cycling fan I am obviously very proud of his achievements but he has some way to go to get close to the best bike rider of the last 30 years and that's you Lance...
I think Lance underestimates the amount of money there is for cyclocross riders at MVDP's level. Also the fact the team allows him the opportunity to pursue three disciplines for the time being. I hope we see more riders racing different disciplines as is more prevalent in the women's ranks with Vos, Neff, Prevot....
VdP is clearing about a million euro at the moment. Good money for the flexibility he has to change between disciplines. I expect that income will double after Amstel.
No matter what happened in the passt. I still like it when Lance speaks! MVDP is a revelation for todays cycling ! I guess genes do matter mix of Poulidor and Adrian vd Poel
Lance talking about Lance , no thank yoú , but him speaking about present and future cycling , also looking back to past races , great stuff , I like to hear his opinion . Good luck to him
As Joost Mulder already commented below, MvdP won 32 out of 40 races, but let’s not forget he only entered 34 out of those 40. So he won 32 out of 34. And a lot of them with a considerable margin. And his competition is not exactly soft Belgian praline, these guys are hard riders. To say this Amstel race is probably the best experience of his life does somewhat overlook that achievement, as well as his cyclocross World Championship win which he really wanted.
Awesome Awesome. The Race. The Pod’s. Thanks Lance and Team WeDu! Cycling is great again! Faith Restored. The Tours will be just as monumental. Unbelievable heart.
just found and love the podcast! Lance you guys should do a video highlight show of the classic races, and explain the tactics going on. Invite some more of your cycling friends and break down the races. The wealth of knowledge you could share would be must watch. Keep up the good work!!
Van der Poel starts this Year 44 times,and he won 33 times in cycling on the road,mountainbike etc thats 75% people. Yesterday after 4 months mountainbike races he starts for the first time on the road AGAIN in Norway, and he WON! He is almost like Superman on a bike
Just a small note: His team Correndon Circus was in fact invited for Paris-Roubaix, but MVDP did not want to ride it this year so that he could have different goals for his next seasons. As usual great podcast guys!
This race, and froome,'s long solo ride on the gravel in the Giro last year... awesome couple of years to watch races. Mvdp, Alaphilippe, evenepoel, van Aert, Bernal, great near future.
It would be fantastic to see Nino Schurter's reaction to this epic MVDP win! I can only imagine Nino's confidence of dominance just became more of a question. Love both those riders btw, Coming from an American dirt hound with dutch heritage! You thrilled it Mathieu!!!
Just some info... M vdP and his team made the switch from Stevens bikes to Canyon, because Mathieu's biggest goal is the Tokyo 2020 XC gold medal and Canyon/Shimano can give him the support he needs.
This was a great race! The 89 world championships comes to mind on a day when the winner basically had a throttle on his bike to neutralize all the others at their personal strengths, beat fignon on the climb, and kelly on the sprint. True old school racing
is amazing to see MVP sprinting when he is on front, I like, also it was one of the favorites to win , and he did it!!!!! the way he handle the pressure, makes him a super star!!!!!
Hi guys, a Dutch fan (of your show and MvdP of course) here. Love the show, love this breakdown of the AGR. I just wanted to add: the Dutch national coach Moerenhout now wants to win this year's road world championships in Yorkshire with van der Poel. The news came out just after the AGR. I'm psyched to hear you guys discuss this race and him contending in it with probably a world-class supporting cast, which we're lucky to have in this generation of Dutch riders. Let us hear what you think, or do you let us wait until the preview of the race somewhere this fall?
Gotta love the race and the place and i was freaking out at the last sprint. I think it was Matt Stephens that was commentating he was going nuts lol. I was calling Alaphilippe cant believe it. He'll gets some offers not sure if he'll break contract. He might get a deal to split teams.
Corendon Circus is actually aiming to get a pro tour licence, even for next season I believe. So, yes the team will grow with MVDP, Quick Step, Sky, Astana, they won’t stand a chance. Lance, your podcast is great fun, time will come where you will be welcome again at the finish line of those great races and take your place again in the cycling hall of fame.
Great show guys !! Love these reviews. About VDP, his contract is pretty firm. Canyon pays the big bucks. VDP earn 1 million Euros each year. Add then some cross income in price and start-money he has a yearly income of 1.5 million. This is excluded additional sponsor income. So he is not really in need for a bigger team if it comes to money. Other thing why he wants to stay is the fact that he wants to be a Olympic champion in mountainbiking in 2020. His current Belgian Corendon Circus teams helps him achieving this. Just some feedback guys. Cheers
The National Team Coach has asked Matthieu van der Poel to be his main biker in the World Championships Race in september Yorkshire. Until that time Matthieu has two mountainbike world series races and takes 8 weeks leave.
Adrie Van Der Poel (Dad): "We respect contracts in good and bad times". Quote in a belgian newspaper. There was quite a lot of back wind. Notice the red flags on the tent left on the screen. Next are mountain bike races because the 2020 olympics are a big goal for him.
26.45 They start talking about the Van Der Poel family. Father Adri van der Poel and grandfather Jacques Poulidor raced too. Half a year after this interview Poulidor died. I am happy that he lived to see his grandson pull off such a victory. Interestingly, with both his son in law and his grandson winning the AGR, Poulidor didn't come close to winning this race (one time 20th, one time 18th, one abandon), even though he did well in the other Ardennes Classics (one win and one second place in the Fleche Wallonne, five times in the top ten of Liège-Bastogne-Liège). But of course Poulidor was more known for his results in the Tour de France.
on the subject of who MDP reminds me of. He's reminds me of the bike racer I dreamed of being when I was about 8 and didn't know anything about drafting or tactics (or any other aspect of cycling) and thought it was all about just riding faster and being stronger than all the other riders combined.
If you want that, it’s mountain bike racing that you’re looking for. Drafting is minimal and it’s all about being the strongest rider. I am disappointed they changed to shorter races with the 1&1/2 hour XCO format. Back when I was racing (in Alaska in the early 90s) races were 2-3 hours long and longer. Although usually our longer races were what they would call gravel races today (although with the washboard on Alaska’s gravel roads, a gravel bike would be a nightmare; mountain bikes made much more sense. Washboard causes an immediate drop in speed to less than half of normal). I think World Cup racing should have stuck to a longer format.
I have not heard any mention of the role of Alaphillipe's Director Sportif in the car. They should've been aware of the pack closing in and yelling in his ear to stop playing games and to pick it up. Where was the team car - did they get surprised as well because of lack of TV coverage ? Is there any other timing available to them?
Don't forget REMCO Evenepool, just turned 19, 9th on GC in his his first tour, 4th in his second Tour, heading towards the podium as his experience grows, watch his ride in 2018 junior worlds, crashed with 100km to go , lost 2 minutes , went like a motorbike , rode through the field & off the front and gained over a minute to win alone ........................part of the new generation , exciting racing ahead
I remember when lance came to Adelaide and did the tour down under in 2009 or 10 at least 3 or 4 times when I was riding through town at night people would call out "laance laaance". It was especially funny when I had just come out of the hills at about 3 or 4 am on a Saturday morning from an epic ride and right at the edge of the suburbs is a pub which I think had just closed as there were a lot of people out front and the crowd was like laance laaance as I sped down the hill past them. It was so funny.
Hmm, I wonder what MVDP is going to focus on this season, cant find any comment telling me here... I can imagine that he and the team will reevaluate the upcoming goals after what he showed.
Completely agree on the point of needing stars like Mathieu. He is really good for Rd. iv never seen a rider as versatile as Mathieu. I first started watching him dominating cx, and thought this dude is special. He makes pros look like amateurs. He rides with flare and panache. He is the Michael Jordan of cycling...
Reminded me of The "No Gifts" Beating Of Andreas Kloden... Stage 17 of the 2004 TDF featured a brutal profile featuring 16,827 feet of climbing over five mountain passes, making it the hardest stage of the Tour. The final miles of the day's course consisted of a lightning-fast descent to Le Grand Bornand after cresting the Category 1 Col de la Croix Fry. Armstrong's powerful US Postal Service team set a torrid pace that caught the day's breakaway on the slopes of the final climb. Postal rider Floyd Landis took over on the ascent and what remained of the small Yellow Jersey group shrank quickly. The elite of the Tour were all that were left at the summit: Armstrong, Landis, T-Mobile rider Andreas Klöden (3rd overall at the time), his teammate Jan Ullrich (4th) and CSC's Ivan Basso (2nd). As the quintet roared toward the finish, Landis attacked the group less than 2 kilometers from the finish. He was quickly reeled in by Ullrich; Kloden counterattacked just under the 1-kilometer-to-go banner. It looked like the German National Champion had secured the win, but Landis worked hard at the front to keep Armstrong within striking distance. Lance blasted from the group on the finishing stretch and overtook the startled Kloden right at the line to snag the victory. While Armstrong was on the winner's podium, 5-time Tour-winner Bernard Hinault stepped up to the Yellow Jersey and complimented him on the finish. "Perfect. No gifts." ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Dsv_7o3mQno.html
Come on guys, do your research. MVDP is racing the upcoming World Cup MTB season, as he did last year. His big focus is MTB gold at the 2020 Olympics. There are 7 WC MTB races, they are broadcast on Red Bull TV and are usually very exciting. Try watching the first event next month and podcasting about it. The women's race is often the most exciting as nobody seems to be able to regularly beat Nino Shurter.
I've seen this in the past. Froom, 80km in atack on Giro. Lance giving 2 minutes to Ulrich on Tour de France TT. Sagan after puncture on TofCalifornia ...lets see in time :)
I'm a little embarrassed for you in regard to how much you know about this kid. You also mention that you rode with his Dad. You're right, he was a World Champion in Cyclocross. BUT he was also 2nd place behind Lemond in 83 in the World Championships on the road. DEFINITELY something worth mentioning I would think. As for Mathieu himself, he has already won World Championships on the road, as a Junior. He also won back to back World Championships in Cyclocross as a Junior. He then skipped right over the U23 race and went right into the Elite World Championship in 2015, which he won. He just won again in Denmark in January. His cyclocross season was something like 33 wins and one 2nd place. Toon Aerts beat him at the Kopenberg Cycloross Race. Toon rides for Sven Nys' Fidea/Trek team. Toon will likely be the next crosser to make his way to the road. He has huge power and beat Wout Van Aert with regularity this year including the Belgian Championship. Finally, Mathieu raced all the Mountain Bike World Cups last year. Both cross country and the short courses. He won several short course events but hasn't been able to win a CC event or beat Nino Schurter. Which tells us just how un-friggen-believable Nino is. Finally Mathieu raced the Mt. Bike World Championships last year, bringing home the Bronze behind Nino and the Italian with the German name, Gerhard Kerschbaumer. He has a goal to race in the next Olympics, on the Mt. Bike. Mathieu was born in Antwerp, Belgium. Not sure if that gives him dual citizenship or not. His older brother David is also a pro cross racer on the same team. Two of his road teammates are also cross racers. The German National Champion who was in the early break yesterday Marcel Miesen. And also Belgian, Giannia Vermeersch.
@@Jhhgftghjjj It seems I need to read up a bit too. He never did win it on the road. So that part is wrong. He was 2nd to Lemond in 83. I made the mistake of taking a friend's word on that one. I'll corrtect that. But the point was that these guys seem oblivious to some of the stuff Mathieu has done, and done recently.
Mathieu VDP lives and grew up in Belgium and can speak both french and dutch, he even has a Flemish accent . He just has a Dutch nationality from his fathers side. There are early intervieus and TV bits where you see him talking to his grandfather Poulidor.
Besides the fact that MVDP was great, it is absolutely unbelievable how Alaphilippe lost this race. It would have been so easy for him to win it. I have no idea what he had in his mind.
Hey Lance. No matter what happened in the past. It was that time period in sports in general. To me you are still the greatest of that period in cycling. BTW MVP had an average of 1150W in the last 30 seconds. An average!
You need to inform yourself better Lance about MVDP. He has a really clear program, a really good contract and will not leave the team as he can do what ever he wants. Good luck with your show
MVDP has a past Pro for a dad, all time Legend Raymond Poulidor is his Grandad !!! he has grown up with the hype & he wants his share too......you can imagine his motivation in any sprint " Don't get second", Don't get second.....................
in an interview with sporza, MvdP reiterated that cross and mtb are still more fun to him. He says he realizes now that road has a bigger impact, since he is doing interviews everywhere, but that doesn't change the fact that he will likely not ride a grand tour for still a couple of years.
“Corendon is a hotel, I had to look it up”. Okay, Corendon is a travel agency which also runs three charter airlines with around 20 aircraft. I see how you found the hotel “in Amsterdam” - it’s a new hotel they built close to Schiphol where they put an old Boeing in front just because they could, so that was probably in the news. But if you look it up, look it up!
Corendon isn't a hotel, it's a travel agency :-) And the team has said they'll keep growing with Van der Poel, and they'll probably be able to get huge sponsors now.
It is important to know that he is already (before his road campaign) making over a million euros a year. Canyon gives him carte blanche and a lot of money for endorsement. Atilay Uslu (the founder of Corendon) has already comitted to investing heavily in building a World Tour worthy team around him.
JB, he's taking one week off, than starts preparing for the mountain bike season, he will do 2 WC races this summer, and who knows what else. Hopefully the world championships in Yorkshire.
@@TheJbhager If you have the time, try to watch some cyclocross races next winter. They are usually much more fun to watch. Although, maybe less exiting than usual, since MvdP won 32 out of 34 races last season...
Reports are he went from the third peleton to the second peleton and purely om instinct he decided to go fore a good result. He is also doing some worldcup mountain bike races and the World Championship. They are also considering to do the road race cycling. So he could be a World Champion in 3 different disciplines on the bike in one season..
Too bad he did so many bad things... and he's just making things up because it seems logical... yes there was wind. MvdP could've done Paris Roubaix. No he will not got for the big money. Not logical for an American.
Not sure but i think that not getting invitation for Parijs-Roubaix was never an issue. The team decided where they wanted to participate and they were all eager to give this team a wild card.. They all wanted to see MVDP on the road and they made it clear some time ago that he would only participate in a couple of road races. I kind of hope MVDP stays at corendon/circus, cant wait for Yorkshire and Tokyo 2020. One rider competing in cx, road and mtb at top level is absolutely amazing to watch.
@@jamskof not superhuman? The guy already launched an attack, got caught, which already is a game breaker for almost every other racer. Then, continues tot chase the front group with literally nobody helping him. The front group is slowing down because of tactical games so already a little more rested. Then out sprints everyone with insane power. Do not see how this isn't super human.
The reason they took out the Cauberg in the end is because in the past the race was to predicable, waiting for the start of that climb and whoever is first on top wins, with this finish anything can happen and the finale starts much earlier
PLEASE Lance do some research: MVDP speaks fluent French (just listen to his interview after the race) and he has stated that he will now concentrate on Mountain biking for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan (as there is no CycloCross race in the Olympics YET!)
@@rahimns Did not know that. Not that MVDP would need his team mates, but the riders are fully capable of riding something like PR. Maybe logistics was the problem?
@@istegalkarl Actually, the team was offered an invitation but only if MvdP agreed to participate. When the team said they couldn't do that, the invitation was withdrawn. But the team has just said MvdP will ride PR next year, so we'll see him in 2020 flying over those cobbles.
