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Clearly one of the most exciting and talented riders for a very long time and is going to get a lot of wins. The way he was racing he could have been either MTB world champ, WC winner, or most likely both. However he chose (or his team did) to focus on the road world champs instead, which is far more unpredictable and less certain of a win.
I'm not going to criticise his choice, but does it kind of stick 2 fingers up at MTB that he thinks that even a sniff of a road champs is worth more that 2 mtb titles? Is MTB viewed by pro's as a less serious competition?
Not less serious but less lucrative and less notoriety than a road world title.
I would imagine road is considered more prestigious.
I think he is well respected by the road race & MTB professional community. I think that they know his gene pool & are probably in awe of his multi disciple ability. And, of course to the CX world he's already a legend. I think he's making the most of his younger years before age kicks in and he physically won't recover enough to compete at such a high level across so many disciplines. I take my hat off to him.
He’s a cyclist.
Road cycling will earn him and his sponsors more dosh.
Fair dos.
It's probably not a winning mindset I'll ever understand, I get your points but for many people a series win or world champs would be a life's ambition. He's basically passed up an almost given victory for a gamble on the road. I guess I'm just surprised that he didn't wrap up his MTB season in style before focussing on the road. It must be tough having that much talent and not knowing where to focus it.
In a way I'm a bit miffed as it took the edge of the MTB season, as it could have been an awesome conclusion to the season.
does it kind of stick 2 fingers up at MTB that he thinks that even a sniff of a road champs is worth more that 2 mtb titles?
No, it's great for MTB that he races it at all.
He was the favourite for the Worlds, not just having a stab at it.
He’s in the middle of a two year block aimed at the Tokyo olympics mtb. He’s had to work hard to beat schuter too. Seems pretty respectful of mtb to me.
Road riding is still only his hobby and I don’t think he confirmed for the road worlds until after amstel. He’s still finding out how good he is at it. It’s just that worlds course was tailor made for him (even though in bonked). He couldn’t really say no.
Edit: ^and yeah he was the favourite
Wasn’t his mountain biking just a build up to riding it in the Olympics, be interesting to see if he sticks with that plan. With regards to the op he’s a top drawer roadie now as mentioned for his sponsors mtb isn’t the same drawer as Road, mtb you get a rainbow jersey which gets no exposure on tv in a sport very few people do (I ride mtbs and I’ve no idea who the xc world champion is)
He’s a cyclist.
Road cycling will earn him and his sponsors more dosh.
Fair dos.
He’s utterly awesome, you should be great full he rode any MTB.
Slightly misplaced angst you have IMO
Slightly misplaced angst you have
Not sure I have any angst over it at all-just having a debate. As someone who was a totally crap racer, I'd have thought it would be worth wrapping up the MTB titles whilst on form. Maybe injury or illness will prevent him getting another chance. As much as anyone can be favourite in a road champs; it cans still be a total lottery on the day.
How do you think the CX world feels??
He effectively handed the World Cup to the eventual winner by not showing up for half the races but then absolutely storming the rounds he did enter.
It's why I can't actually get behind him as a rider, he's so good it sort of makes a mockery of anything he enters, slightly relieved he didn't win today!
Last comment is a fair point I think the guy is awesome but this years CX reason will be like training for him if Van Aert does not do many races it just shows he is human after all when you watch his playing on a mountain bike videos all those jumps and cross ups he is a cool rider all round.
Matt White on the cycling podcast was asked would he consider getting some of his riders into cyclo-cross. He said he hadn’t thought of it but then seemed to serious consider it. But... he went onto suggest that van der Poel would only have a few years to capitalise on his cyclocross training once he started road riding after that the benefits would begin to taper.
It says, IMHO, that road pays better than MTB.
He’s a professional cyclist after all..
passed up an almost given victory for a gamble on the road.
That - to me - is the mentality of a world class athlete. Pushing himself to try the thing he thinks he could do, ahead of the thing he knows he can do.
An individual who likes riding bikes and is very good at riding bikes, picks one over the other.
To suggest that it "says" something about MTB seems odd to me. He can do what he likes, its his life, his bike and his choice. Not something to get possesive, defensive, offended about.
One sport is not better than any other.
Christ this place is hard work sometimes...
It was merely a question about whether an MTB world championships are viewed as a 'lesser' achievement than on the road.
But thanks for reminding me why I don't bother posting much on here.
MvdP only really had to beat one rider this year to win the MTB title, besides the title holds little prestige in comparison to the road title. The people who run MTB better start getting their finger out because CX is getting far better coverage and the races are a lot more exciting - I'd rather watch one hour of good racing than 2 hours of a couple of blokes following each other.
It was merely a question about whether an MTB world championships are viewed as a ‘lesser’ achievement than on the road.
Honestly? Yes.
The road world champs is, rightly or wrongly, seen as the pinnacle of the sport of 'cycling'.
It was merely a question about whether an MTB world championships are viewed as a ‘lesser’ achievement than on the road.
Yes, yes they are
You should have asked that question then. But its obvious from the coverage MTB'ing gets compared to Road Cycling. I dont think Ive ever seen MTB'ing on BBC Sport at all, wheras the darkside is often on it.
I dont think it matters though. We can still ride our bikes whatever coverage we do or dont get.
It was merely a question about whether an MTB world championships are viewed as a ‘lesser’ achievement than on the road.
I’d put mtb xc wc well below road race and individual tt wc, below cx, below a lot of track disciplines and probably below mtb dh in terms of prestige, publicity if not earnings as well.
You should have asked that question then.
Thought I had, just in a way that I thought might encourage debate. I'll try and keep it simpler next time.
I'm surprised that it is not viewed in higher regard as it's clearly not easy to win i.e. the level of the athletes is very similar.
The road world champs is, rightly or wrongly, seen as the pinnacle of the sport of ‘cycling’.
I'd argue the Tour is more important, at least outside the world of cycling. But yeah, either way it's much more important (and lucrative) than MTB.
I’m surprised that it is not viewed in higher regard as it’s clearly not easy to win i.e. the level of the athletes is very similar.
I think it’s a victim of a number of factors; mtb as a whole getting very little media coverage, in the UK it’s red bull tv only, it’s a very niche discipline with quite small participation figures even in mtbing and these all lessen its comerciability and thus how it’s viewed. Personally I’d watch World Cup races on rbtv but they can be quite dull.
I’d argue the Tour is more important
I was wondering that as I wrote what I did, it's certainly a close call between the two.
On a tangent, do we think Red Bull have given XC a boost with their coverage?
I enjoyed watching the Worlds, might follow the World Cup next year too.
Road is in his DNA.
It's the old "Big fish in a small pond" thing, I'd have liked to see him do the CX but TBH it's not really my call is it...
TBH it's not something the great unwashed should get to decide or criticise, it's van der Poel's career and it's fair enough for him to chose the event(s) that he will enter for whatever reasons.
Perhaps it's even to his credit that rather than choosing MTB where his success was apparently almost assured he instead took on the greater challenge with less chance of winning...
It was merely a question about whether an MTB world championships are viewed as a ‘lesser’ achievement than on the road.
Sadly yes, it is viewed as "less of an achievement" by the cycling world as a whole. But it might as well have been a rhetorical question, everyone (especially pro-cyclists) already knew that was the case... So when you posed your original question:
Should Mathieu van der Poel have ridden Yorkshire-what does it say about MTB?
You pretty much knew the answer:
Yes he should because, rightly or wrongly, MTB is not as prestigious and does not carry the professional/commercial recognition that Road cycling does...
Also, the fact that he was much less likely of success kind of proves that it would have been "more of an achievement".
He's very much from a road riding background:
His father, Adri, was a six-time national champion and won the world title in 1996; he was also a two-time stage winner at the Tour de France and a winner of several Classics during his career.[3] His maternal grandfather Raymond Poulidor,[11] a French cyclist, was a Grand Tour winner at the 1964 Vuelta a España and finished the Tour de France in a runner-up position three times during his career[12]
Seems like an odd choice to then skip the Olympic RR and focus on MTB?
Is it an indication of him preferring off-road events, but money and sponsors taking him elsewhere (I assume no a factor for Olympics if no prize money). Or is Olympic RR less prestigious than Olympic MTB.
Not a criticism of any of his choices; he's entertaining to watch regardless. Just wondering which way his racing will take him.
Seems like an odd choice to then skip the Olympic RR and focus on MTB?
Fair point, Perhaps the inverse applies for the Olympics Vs the World champs, He'd rather take on the challenge of the WC RR but pick his best chance of scoring an Olympic gold medal?
Although many countries (well certainly the UK) select their entries for the Olympics based on medal chances rather than the individual athlete's own sporting goals... National pride is apparently measured in number and colour of medals, not the type of events they were won in...
The fields for WC Vs Olympics in either discipline shouldn't be too different should they? Many of the same names will pop up, It may simply be the case that national cycling bodies and national Olympic selection panels make their choices based on subtly different criteria.
I think being able to wear rainbow stripes on the road would have more value (career and prestige wise) than being an Olympic gold medallist, but the same would probably still be true in MTB.
It's not like he was going to the road world champs for shits and giggles, he was one of the favourites for the win. As it was he blew up but he was no less assured of the win than the MTB champs and absolutely clear cut that having the road title is more worthwhile both commercially and prestige wise.