Wout van Aert appreciation thread

Pross

kingstongraham said:

No_Ta_Doctor said:

Do we forget he won two stages and the green jersey last year *while* towing Jonas up mountains?

three.

I think it's that he's going to probably win a sprint against anyone who he gets to the finish of a hard race with, but he's finding there's at least one rider in each big one day race who is strong enough to stop that happening.

And he does always seem to think he has to close every gap himself.

To be fair I think that is often the case though, a bit like it was for Sagan. He possibly needs to bluff more though and leave it for others.

Lanterne_Rogue

Not reading back through all this to find out, but has MvdP won this thread yet?

m.r.m.

No_Ta_Doctor said:

Anyway, he's a great rider, but this is what he sees in his nightmares

https://twitter.com/AnnamacB/status/1688506075471896576?t=2NXiPfXICUA6ggBjNeLI9w&s=19

That is a modern reinterpretation of the Jaws poster. 😉

m.r.m.

He will be fine if he ever decides to risk more. It actually is the case of "in order to win the race, you need to risk losing it".
That being said, I don't think he can ever stay with MvdP if MvdP is in top form on a short & steep incline. The only way for him to win such races is to not try to go with MvdP, but rather to ride within himself and reel him in afterwards for a sprint via his TT ability.

Pross

m.r.m. said:

No_Ta_Doctor said:

Anyway, he's a great rider, but this is what he sees in his nightmares

https://twitter.com/AnnamacB/status/1688506075471896576?t=2NXiPfXICUA6ggBjNeLI9w&s=19

That is a modern reinterpretation of the Jaws poster. 😉

I was thinking Predator

me-109

Lanterne_Rogue said:

Not reading back through all this to find out, but has MvdP won this thread yet?

Is there / should there be a MvdP Appreciation thread?

webboo

me-109 said:

Lanterne_Rogue said:

Not reading back through all this to find out, but has MvdP won this thread yet?

Is there / should there be a MvdP Appreciation thread?

Usually any thread discussing him and Wout.😉

TheBigBean

me-109 said:

Lanterne_Rogue said:

Not reading back through all this to find out, but has MvdP won this thread yet?

Is there / should there be a MvdP Appreciation thread?

That's the race threads.

kingstongraham

Wout does need to try and win some bunch sprints again.

rick_chasey

I said it upthread but I think his lack of success is largely down to a tactical deficiency. He spends too much energy riding on the front unnecessarily.

As someone who is almost always the bridesmaid in these races he should not ever stick his nose in the wind unless he is making a race winning move.

m.r.m.

Doesn't he "only" win races that have 1 super hard effort/attack followed by a high steady pace solo or a (reduced) bunch sprint? He tends to not be able to win races with repeated super hard attacks. Those seem to wear him down.
Even his MTF wins or performances are strong steady efforts.
I'm honestly not sure this is something that changes via tactics or am I entirely mistaken?

kingstongraham

Difficult to say what he "wins" in the present tense. 20/21 he won TTs, full on sprint on the Champs Elysees, Amstel Gold (just), Strade Bianche, MSR

He's just not the best at any of those things this year.