Professional cycling can be a rather depressing profession at the moment. The superiority of the exceptional riders is too clear. When Tadej Pogačar took part in Liège-Bastogne-Liège After briefly looking around on the La Redoute climb and spotting no one else from his team who could have kept up the pace, he decided to take the lead himself. The competition seemed paralysed. Only the former Giro winner Richard Carapaz clung to the Slovenian's rear wheel. About 20 pedal strokes later, however, the gap in front of him was torn. And the "locomotive from Carchi" - the Ecuadorian's battle name - was just a wagon itself, which seemed to be rolling over the Belgian cobbles without any drive.
Pogačar was away, 35 kilometres from the finish. Victory in "La Doyenne", the oldest of the Classics monuments, was out of his grasp. The men behind him: pure extras. Romain Bardet, with a clever attack on the last summit of La Roche aux Faucons, finished second as a soloist; he was especially happy about the photo from the podium. "Me between Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel. I can frame the picture and show it to my son," said the Frenchman. He had maximised his own performance and kept the chasers around van der Poel at bay. He was very satisfied with his own performance. "I've never felt as strong on the bike as I do now," he said - and added melancholically: "But my rivals are stronger than I've ever been."
Spring classics: Pogačar and van der Poel hard to beat
This melancholy is widespread. Two men who are stronger than the others ever were or can be left their mark on this spring classics season. What Pogačar did at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, van der Poel showed at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. In the cobblestone classic, the distance to the finish was still 60 kilometres when the man in the world champion's jersey literally flew past the riders in front of him.
Team-mate Gianni Vermeersch had made the race even tougher beforehand, pushing his rivals to their limits. And as van der Poel pushed past position after position on the cobbles, those he passed may still have had the will to follow. But no longer the strength. And it was probably even more humiliating that van der Poel looked as if he was floating over the pavé on a cushion of air. "The way Mathieu rode here was simply sensational. He's in a different league. And we all have to be happy about a podium finish," said Mads Pedersen, who crossed the finish line three minutes after van der Poel in third place.
All push, one drives
At the Tour of Flanders a week earlier, van der Poel's special role had become even more apparent. On the Koppenberg, 44 kilometres before the finish, when the narrow tyres slipped on the rain-soaked cobbles, van der Poel also had to correct his riding line at one point. However, he stayed in the vertical, while behind him strong riders like the Spaniard Oler Lazkano or the Italian Alberto Bettiol and the clever Matej Mohorič were forced to dismount and push their bikes up the cobbles. Van der Poel, however, pulled away - away from the peloton and once again into the history books.
Only ten riders before him - two Swiss, including Fabian Cancellara, and eight Belgians, not including Eddy Merckx - managed the double of Flanders and Roubaix. Only one rider has managed this in the world champion's jersey: the Belgian Rik Van Looy in 1962. These statistics are proof of van der Poel's class. But they also show that there have been other exceptional riders in the history of cycling. However, the 29-year-old van der Poel still has five or six years to write further chapters of fame. During this time, he will not only be able to maintain his level, but even improve it. At least those close to him are convinced of this. "Mathieu can still gain a few percentage points," his father Adrie told the portal Wielerflits.
He believes that switching between the disciplines, between cross, mountain bike and road, is particularly relevant in terms of further improvements. "For Mathieu, variety is particularly important, that we give him different tasks. He also likes being on different bikes and having as big a mix as possible," says his coach Kristof De Kegel. He emphasises his protégé's incredibly fast reaction to training stimuli as a particular quality. "His body simply adapts more quickly, so the phases of build-up and intensity can be shortened," says De Kegel.
Van der Poel with weight problems, Pogačar with reduced competition calendar
His feel for his own body also makes van der Poel special. "He can train without a power meter. If you give him 400-watt intervals, he will only deviate by seven or eight watts, even without a power meter." And all of this means that there is not a single weak point in the entire power architecture. "Whether it's 5-second intervals or a 90-minute effort, he's stable and good everywhere," the coach diagnoses.
The only disadvantage, if you can call it a disadvantage, is his weight. At 75kg, he is considerably heavier than last year's Liège-Bastogne-Liège winners. Pogačar is at 66 kilos, Roglič at 65, Evenepoel at 61, while this year's runner-up, Romain Bardet, weighs 65 kilos. Due to the longer climbs closer to the finale, the climbers who also dominate the grand tours have an advantage. So it's no wonder that Pogačar's reduced competition calendar in the spring is characterised by Milan-San Remo only picked out "L-B-L". This year, he is focussing on other things and is preparing for the Grand Tour double. He is subordinating everything else to this.
One advantage of this reduction: Pogačar left the Basque Country Tour which was still part of the classic build-up programme when he won the Tour in 2021. As a result, he avoided the Mass crash that hospitalised three of his great rivals in the Tour, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel. And he also escaped the rigours of the weather. While the Flèche Wallonne While only 44 riders reached the finish line due to the cold, the Dane Mattias Skjelmose was lifted off his bike like a mummy plucked from the polar ice and loaded into the team car, Pogačar did his training laps in sunny Spain. Van der Poel also travelled there in the days between his Flemish triumphs and the last of the Ardennes classics.
Potential for the future
The two did not reveal how often his training routes crossed with those of Pogačar. In January, Pogačar's team-mate Jan Christen posted a photo showing the two cycling superstars together. "We've almost become friends," said the Slovenian, describing his relationship with the Dutchman. "It's not a pleasure to ride against him because he's so incredibly strong. But he's also great as a competitor, so racing with him is fun again," said Pogačar.
He admires the current world champion for how carefully he chooses his races and what a strong impression he makes there. However, the Slovenian himself is even a little better in this discipline. In ten race days so far this season, he has taken six victories. Van der Poel has "only" three victories from seven race days. With these results, both of them are making a mockery of the old training doctrines, which called for even longer warm-ups to achieve competitive toughness. "I can simulate competition situations quite well in training," said Pogačar.
How can these two be stopped?
But the two are still beatable. Pogačar hasn't won the Tour for two years because Team Jumbo-Visma defeated him with their collective strength. Alpecin-Deceuninck beat him at Milan-San Remo with clever team tactics. Former world champion Mads Pedersen finally knocked van der Poel out of the lead in a long sprint at Gent-Wevelgem. His strength is his acceleration from a higher initial speed, while van der Poel's explosiveness from lower speeds is probably unique.
Coach De Kegel is convinced that van der Poel can get even better: "Every time he sets a new record, whether it's a one-minute effort, a five-minute effort or a 20-minute effort, I think that's it. We'll be travelling at this level for the next three or four years. But then comes the moment when he has a new challenge, organises his training accordingly and the results immediately get even better." And because Pogačar also sees potential for development in himself, the share of the winner's pie for the rest of the peloton is likely to be even smaller in the coming years. Photos from the podium will be the big prizes.
Interview with Steven Verstockt: "With AI against falls"
Steven Verstockt is a crash researcher. With his team at the University of Ghent, the computer scientist and PhD video analyst is currently building the largest database on crashes in road cycling as part of the Course project. A conversation about the causes of crashes, analysis tools and the benefits that artificial intelligence can bring to cycling.
TOUR: Steven Verstockt, this spring was characterised by a lot of crashes. You had the feeling that there were more than before. Could you also see this in your analysis of the crashes?
VERSTOCKT: I wouldn't say that the number of falls has increased. But we can see very clearly in our database of more than 1000 cases that the consequences of falls are more severe and that riders are out of action for longer. This is a new trend.
What patterns do you notice in the causes of falls? Are falls mainly due to dangerous parts of the course, adverse weather conditions or riding errors?
The four most common reasons are descents, changes in the road surface, for example cobbled sections, then the bunch sprints and finally riding errors. We have fewer accidents caused by the weather.
How do you obtain the data?
We mainly read social media accounts and focus on those that frequently report accidents. Of course, this is not a complete overview. Above all, crashes involving prominent riders in major races are posted. But for some time now, the UCI has been manually adding to the statistics. We process the data and link it to images and videos. This is because the image analysis can provide information about the severity of the accident: How did the rider crash, how long did he stay down?
What can you do with the data?
We use them, in collaboration with the UCI, to screen race courses. Where, for example, is there a combination of a descent where the peloton is very fast and a change of road surface or a hilly section? We can inform the organisers and they can either mark the section better or change the course. With the help of artificial intelligence, we can also publish monthly or weekly reports on crashes. Information of this kind has not been available until now.
How do the organisers react to this? In my experience, they are often convinced that they already know the most important things about the route, the danger spots and the behaviour of the peloton. Many of them were professionals themselves. How do they react to your new tool?
Of course they say that they already know all this. But when you watch races on television, there are always segments that are problematic. And time and again this leads to accidents. The reactions are mixed. We are already working with some organisers, others are doing similar things themselves. Cycling is changing. And it's not as if artificial intelligence is going to replace everyone. But it can be a good tool. It could also make sense to use artificial intelligence to analyse images of bunch sprints to determine which riders left their line and therefore need to be penalised. This could also be compared with earlier sprints, where riders were also penalised. That would be more objective than a jury decision now, and the riders would perhaps also be able to understand it better.
There is already a lot of information for the drivers. The briefings are getting longer and longer, and not everyone remembers everything. How should information be prepared so that it is actually received?
That's a good point. I think we should only show them some of the data, such as previous accidents during the race, so that they are sensitised to where they should best position themselves in certain places or where they should take fewer risks.
Team Uno-X Mobility: training in the snow in preparation for the spring classics
The Pro Tour team Uno-X Mobility astounded in the spring classics season with top ten finishes, but above all with resilience in the cold race Flèche Wallonne. Ironically, this put the riders on a confrontation course with their new boss Thor Hushovd.
The images that have burnt themselves into our eyes forever Danish champion Mattias Skjelmose at the Flèche Wallonne showed. Freezing with cold, he was lifted off his bike and carried into the team car. Around him, the bodies of other pros shook with waves of cold. "It was simply very cold. And once you get soaked in temperatures of 5 degrees, you never get warm again," said Dutch rider Bauke Mollema, describing the situation. After all, he was one of the 44 riders - out of 175 who started - who made it to the finish. Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski described the shock his body had to cope with as taking three glasses of vodka on an empty stomach.
The northerners from Team Uno-X were not impressed by this. They were the only racing team to bring all seven riders to the finish line. They even rode to victory in the final, but then had to settle for sixth place with Tobias Halland Johannessen. They were prepared for the cold snap. "We knew that if it snowed, we would only have to wait half an hour for half the field to drop out," said Johannessen. The team also made its mark in other classics. Sören Waerenskjold finished ninth in Paris-Roubaix and sixth in the Scheldeprijs. Jonas Abrahamsen finished second in the Cross Flanders.
Big plans for the future
This represents considerable progress compared to last season. And it brings some UCI points for the World Tour licence, which the team wants to apply for in 2026. This was emphasised by team manager Jens Haugland, who also took the team to the Tour de France last year.
This year, Haugland had to make way for the more prominent Thor Hushovd. And the former top sprinter immediately introduced himself with a strong opinion. He criticised his riders for coming home between the classics races - not to the Spanish sun like van der Poel, but to Scandinavia, where it was snowing longer and harder than in Belgium at the time.
The background to Hushovd's criticism was that you can't train well in the cold. This did not go down well with the team. Veteran Alexander Kristoff grumbled that he had won more races than Hushovd and already knew what he was doing. The trip to the Scandinavian cold might have prepared the men with the yellow helmets perfectly for Belgian cold snaps, contrary to the boss's intention. Cycling, complex as it is, once again delivers completely contradictory trends. Van der Poel maintained his top form throughout the first part of the spring classics season precisely because of the short training trips to the south. The northern riders from Uno-X, on the other hand, put the finishing touches to their training in the snow.
