Dutch fans gorged on cycling success this past weekend. Tom Dumoulin finally broke the Netherlands’s 37-year drought with a grand tour victory. Plus, Jos van Emden won the Giro’s stage 21 time trial. Not bad guys, but Matheiu van der Poel should be part of the conversation too.
The 22-year-old had a stunning four days of racing. The Dutchman beat Tour of Flanders champion Philippe Gilbert in a sprint from a small bunch to win Thursday’s stage 2 at the Baloise Belgium Tour. Then, he abandoned the race before Friday’s time trial. He scooted over to Germany, did a few laps on the mountain bike and rode to second place in the World Cup cross-country race Sunday. The only man to beat him in Albstadt? Olympic and world champion Nino Schurter.
Crossing over from cyclocross to road is relatively common. We’ve known for years that van der Poel, the 2015 ‘cross world champ, had the talent. However, swapping between mountain bike and road (and ‘cross to boot!) is no simple matter. So what can van der Poel learn from other top riders who’ve dabbled in multiple disciplines?
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) tried to mix it up at the Rio Olympics in the XC mountain bike race. A former junior world MTB champion, it wasn’t too much of a stretch. But his race ended after a few flat tires put him out of contention.
Lesson: Maybe don’t start off with the world’s most important race, which only happens every four years. Perhaps ease into things with MTB worlds? Or get your feet wet in a World Cup like van der Poel did? And make sure those tires are pumped up nice and firm — they aren’t ‘cross tubies.
Although retired cyclocross legend Sven Nys was never a world-beating roadie like Sagan, he didn’t shy away from summer road racing. Also, Nys’s Olympic campaigns were a bit better than Sagan’s. The Belgian finished ninth at the Beijing games. He also won MTB nationals five times in his career. Not bad, but he was the Belgian CX national champ nine times.
Lesson: Just do everything Sven does, and you’ll probably be a-OK.
Let’s also remember Australia’s only Tour de France champion, Cadel Evans. Before he took home the yellow jersey in 2011, Evans was twice the UCI mountain bike World Cup champion in 1998 and 1999.
Lesson: Don’t be afraid of commitment. Evans pushed all his chips over to the road after a damn good mountain bike career. It paid off with that Tour win and a road world championship title in 2009. Could he have kept racing MTB? Maybe, but success would have been harder to come by on the road. Bonus lesson: Keep an eye on your dog in post-race media scrums!
So what should we expect from van der Poel? In the near-term, he won’t see tons of opportunities to battle WorldTour stars like Gilbert. Partly, that is because he’s on a Continental team, Beobank-Corendon. If he snags a few more road wins (and he probably will), fans will want to see him step up to more major races. But if he keeps impressing on the MTB World Cup circuit, what then?
These days, a WorldTour road career requires singular focus. If that’s the path, then should be van der Poel’s only path. However, if the Dutchman wants to keep dabbling, it is certainly doable to ride successfully in both ‘cross and MTB at the sports’ highest levels.
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