I'm a better collector than I am a cyclist. USA-based jersey collector. Also unique things I notice during races, cycling style & race data / power analysis! 🚲
The power⚡️of Mathieu van der Poel🚀
A thread below👇with some top power (race) performances from the 👑 of the world, as shared on Strava
As always, a huge thanks to this rider / team / performance coaches for sharing such insightful data with the wattage nerds🙋♂️of the world!
🤯 Holy smokes 💥
Mathieu van der Poel attacking HARD into one of the most technically challenging sections of this course ⚡️
The style, the souplesse, the POWER 🥊
#MVDP
#Diegem
🎥:
@flobikes
Sepp Kuss, 2018 Tour of Utah🇺🇸
The 24 year old absolutely dominated this now defunct stage race
Sepp (handily) won 3 of the 6 stages, seemingly easily soloing to each mountain stage victory
For many (me included), this is when it became clear this “kid” was extraordinary
🌈💥 Mathieu van der Poel attacks 💥🌈
What a historic season for MVDP, and what an incredible compilation of attacks! 🧨
CX 🌈, Strade, MSR, E3, De Ronde, Roubaix, DDHH, Belgium Tour, Road 🌈, Super 8
This man has been blasting off 🚀 & dropping watt bombs 💣 all year long 😎
🌈 Peter Sagan, Richmond 2015 🌈
“This was the one-shot race, the one bullet that I had been waiting the whole year, my whole career, my whole life, to fire. I wasn’t going to lose without having tried to win. I wasn’t going to die wondering.”
- Peter Sagan, “My World”
Demi Vollering signing with Nike (in the Jordan jacket 😎) is one of the single coolest pieces of cycling news I can remember ✔️✅
Legendary 🔥🤘
📸: Demi BALLERing’s insta
Wout van Aert - Stage 4, 2022 Tour de France🥇
One of the most utterly dominant performances I’ve ever seen from Wout💥
Blasting up the Côte du Cap Blanc-Nez, dropping the entire peloton and riding 10.8km solo to take the win (in the yellow speedsuit 🟨, no less) 💪⚡️
Iconic👑
Zdeněk Štybar🇨🇿
Strade Bianche 2015🏆
This is one of my favorite, and one of Štyby’s all-time greatest, performances
Greg Van Avermaet going FULL nuclear from the bottom of the Via Santa Caterina, Štyby catching & passing in the final corner to take victory🥇
This is CICLISMO
Mathieu van der Poel is the undisputed king of SENDING IT 🚀
Some of his best, most brutal, most insane “thermonuclear” long-distance attacks👇
Worlds ‘23: 91km
KBK ‘21: 83km
Worlds ‘23: 74km
Tirreno ‘21: 53km
BinckBank ‘20: 50km
AGR ‘19: 43km
KBK ‘19: 38km
Worlds ‘23: 22km
Each of Van der Poel’s 5 attacks from his first E3 victory today
1. 80km out on the Taaienberg 💥
2. 67km out on the Boigneberg 🥊
3. 66km out ⚔️
4. 58km out on the Stationsberg 🚀
5. 44km out on the Paterberg ⚰️☠️🏴☠️
The undisputed King of Sending It 🛫💸
#MVDP
#E3SaxoClassic
Good gracious 🤯😱
Look at the speed (and insane power through the pedals) and momentum MVDP carries up this short and steep sand kicker
Unreal what we’re seeing this CX season🔥
Spring 2024 is going to be WILD 🤞🤘
#CXWorldCup
#Zonhoven
#MVDP
🎥:
@flobikes
This is what a peak 1 minute race power effort looks like🚀
Mathieu van der Poel attacking the Gulperberg, 2019 Amstel Gold🇳🇱
The highest 1 min “race power” of 47 races analyzed on Strava💪
1 min⚡️of 757 watts (1,221 peak) AFTER having raced 215km / ~5.5 hours at 331w NP 🤯💨
My favorite Nathan Van Hooydonck moment was RVV ‘23
It showed what a phenomenal rider, teammate and person he is
22km to race
NVH is in the (leading) break, but sits up
Waits
And EMPTIES THE TANK to get WVA to the Kwaremont in the best position possible
Chapeau, NVH❤️👊
The workload of MVDP in La Classicissima
1. Neutralize Pogi’s 1st attack
2. Close down Pogi’s 2nd attack
3. Strategic descent, let
#JasperDisaster
catch
4. Singlehandedly pull back a flying Matej Mohorič
5. Empty the tank to chase down Pidcock & set up a bunch sprint
Insanity!
Oier Lazanko's Clásica Jaén🥇
Dist: 159km
💨: 42.3 km/h
⚡️AP: 358w
⚡️NP: 409w
Kjs: 5,212 (1.4k / hour!)
⚡️peaks👇
5sec: 1,228w at km 34 to KOM "Rock RaiderX"
5min: 514w AP / 530w NP at km 119, Calle Del Pino
20min: 457w AP / 476w NP to KOM Subida a Baeza (49 min into race)
🇳🇱🌈 MVDP x
@GoZwift
🟠🧡
69 minutes at 244 watts is easy peasy for the double CX / road world champion 🥱
Crazy low average ❤️ rate of 114bpm
For context, at a 450 FTP, 244w is active recovery at a light 54% intensity factor 😴
Absolutely insane how strong pro cyclists are🤯
We’ve seen the memes
But for me, it’s the way nobody is looking at or talking to each other, followed by Top Ganna and Mathieu immediately getting comfy and diving into a jovial conversation the second Wout stands up.
Great comedy after a historic battle🤝🤙
#Milansanremo
Roubaix ‘18
“I give the handlebar a smack and everything just jogs. Pointless.”
“At that very moment my guardian angels appeared alongside me in the Bora Hansgrohe Ford.”
“Got a four-millimeter Allen key, Jan?”
“A minute later and we’re back in the game.”
- Sagan, “My World”
It’s hard to explain exactly how much work MVDP did here on the Via Roma😵
Pulling back an inter ballistic Matej Mohorič blastoff & not hesitating when Pidcock flew
The instincts and cyborg-like power output here after ~286km of racing (& absolutely ripping the Poggio) are 🤯☠️
“I’ve never seen a rider who can really destroy himself like he can. It’s sometimes a bit scary to see him go all the way.”
Christoph Roodhooft re: Mathieu van der Poel’s ability to go ☠️DEEP😵👇
The shot 📸
And the moment 🎥
So wholesome ❤️
MVDP’s 6th & final day in yellow, 2021 Tour stage 8
Chapeau,
@jossewester
- in my opinion, one of the most incredible moments in pro cycling caught on camera here 🫶
The child’s face, disbelief & the way he clings to the bidon 🥰
One of my favorite scenes from the
@FlandersClassic
2019 “De Ronde 103: Behind the Scenes”
MVDP begins his solo chase after crashing, blasting through the convoy up the Kwaremont
Watch the bewilderment & respect from the announcers & competition
“He flew by us like a jet”✈️🚀
This guy has so much class 👏
Signing an autograph for a child just moments after hopping off his bike, high-fiving the crowd at the finish line, interacting with fans after winning ✍️
The people’s champion & an absolute class act 🏆
#MVDP
🎥:
@flobikes
Helen Wyman said Mathieu van der Poel was the first to ride this insane corner 😮💨
Immediately followed by the second to do the same (WVA)🇧🇪😎
Watch these two absolutely rail this 180 degree turn, sliding the rear wheel around in the rut as only this 🔥 duo could ⚡️
#Koksijde
This pic of MVDP in Hoogerheide by
@SportPic_Agency
🔥🤯
The height of pro CX barriers and the finesse with which the best float over them blows my mind - the technique, balance and timing perfectly captured here by Gaëtan Flamme 🤘
#Ga
ëtanFlamme
#MVDP
#Hoogerheide
#VanderPoel
What a ride by Gianni Vermeersch today!
The man pounded out an incredible 4.3 w/kg (average) & 4.9 w/kg (normalized) for nearly 6 hours, burning 5.8k kJ’s (~1k / hour) and generating 444 TSS (at a Strava 360w FTP estimate) to take a fantastic 6th place in the Hell of the North!
MVDP’s ‘23 Loenhout 🥇was 🔥
But his ‘19 Loenhout🥇was 🤯
Crashing
Moving from ~40th to catching the chase in ~15 minutes
Attacking the chase
Catching & attacking Van Kessel
And igniting a fantastic, multi-attack, multi-lap battle with Eli Iserbyt
This was incredible👇
🌈🇫🇷Julian Alaphilippe, Leuven 2021🇫🇷🌈
Alaphilippe’s final 50km of the 2021 world championships were INCREDIBLE
The constant attacks, the poise when strategizing with Thomas Voeckler before his final assault
The way he won was downright dominant🔨
💥 LouLou watt bombs💣👇
The shot 📸 & the moment 🎥
Incredible moment captured by
@a_gruber
x
@gruberimages
of Mathieu van der Poel & Wout Van Aert (with Pogi in 3rd wheel) flying by “The Butchers” in E3 2023, with the video of this exact moment shown below 🇧🇪🥩
The E3 Butchers - 2024 vs 2023 vs 2022
The now-famous Van de Walle Butcher Shop, as seen with the front group / rider in the prior 3 editions of
@E3SaxoClassic
🐷
@SportPic_Agency
witj the 2024 shot,
@gruberimages
with the 2023 & 2022 shots 👑📸
2 years ago today, Roubaix ‘21
One of the wildest races in the history of this sport 🤯
The ⛈️
The carnage through the Arenberg
MVDP riding like a maniac🥉
Florian Vermeersch🥈
Moscon’s flat & crash 🦹♂️
The white shoe covers 😂
But most of all👇
🇮🇹🐍SONNY COLBRELLI 🐍 👑
Freddy Ovett giving the people the content they need 🔥
MVDP and U23 CX World Cup winner / U23 CX world champ, Tibor Del Grosso, tail whipping the Aeroads (on repeat 😎)
Cycling is so cool right now 🕶️
The Paterberg - 400 meters at 12.9%, maxing out at 20%
Here, historic images of the Big 3 hitting the Paterberg in 2023 during (a) E3, (b) on the penultimate trip up the berg in RVV23 and (c) on the final ascent of this iconic climb in RVV23
Can’t wait for more of this in ‘24
Wout van Aert’s Strava says that, in a 60 minute effort at Zilvermeercross, he burned 1,425 calories 🤯
Endurance athletes will appreciate how absolutely mind blowing that statistic (if correct) is
Koksijde, November 24, 2019
One of the single most incredible things I’ve ever seen in cycling
Mathieu van der Poel got caught behind a first lap crash
By minute 7.5, he had passed ~50 riders and caught 1st🤯
By minute 11 he was solo😎
Eventually winning the race by 25 sec🚀
One of my favorite Peter Sagan victories
2017 Tirreno-Adriatico, stage 5
2017 was peak Sagan, winning at will on any terrain
Here, winning on a STEEP final climb after 210km of racing, beating out mostly GC contenders (Pinot, Nairo, Geraint, Primoz, Mollema, Uran, Dumoulin)
Peter Sagan x 2014 Tour of Oman 🚀
Stage 4🥇
One of his most stylishly audacious, yet also characteristically smooth, victories 👑
Breaking away (along with Uran & Nibali) in the super tuck with 9.5km to race, ripping turns to the finish & bunny hopping 🤯curbs at 40+ km/h 😎
Mathieu van der Poel’s 2023 Poggio attack
I’ve pieced together roadside footage to understand how it happened
5.5km left in MSR, 0.2km to the top of Poggio
MVDP comes from the back, alongside Ganna/WVA/Pogi
Taps Pogi as he’s getting squeezed
And unleashes 20 seconds of🔥
Robert Gesink rode like an absolute machine today!
Power data (all NP)👇
5min: 467w
20min: 436w
60min: 407w
3 hour: 379w
Stage (4:24:16): 361w
Eurosport weight of 70kg puts the 20min at 6.3 w/kg, hour power at 5.8 w/kg and 5.2 w/kg for the 4+ hour stage🤯
Chapeau
@RGUpdate
!
Wout pulling the pin 💣 and going thermonuclear!
What a race by the 3x Worls Champion and WOW, this spring is shaping up to be one of the greatest ever!
Incredible performance from one of the greatest-ever in one of the most thrilling & dynamic races in years!
🎥:
@flobikes
The way Mathieu van der Poel gains time and creates little gaps all over a CX course is one reason he’s so consistently dominant 🏆
Perfect example👇 when he was chasing back
Look how much farther he’s able to ride before dismounting when compared to everyone around him 🚀
Peter Sagan x Paris Roubaix 2018
The way Sagan raced this treacherous penultimate cobbled sector, pavé de Willems à Hem, was absolutely crazy 🤯
Ducking and diving to ride every possible inch of pavement despite the barriers, this was a (scary!) masterclass in bike handling 👑
Absolute chaos inflicted by this (presumably race-winning) Van der Poel wattage bazooka 🔥⚡️
Major damage done to the group with this ruthless attack 💣💥
#WattBomb
#zonhoven
#MVDP
🎥:
@flobikes
Tábor 2015🇨🇿
Mathieu van der Poel’s first elite cyclocross world championship🌈👑
A 🔥 race animated by an intra-team 🇳🇱 duel with Lars van der Haar, a fantastic show of grinta from a young Wout van Aert🥈& an impressive display of MVDP technical mastery (at the age of 20🤯) 🌈
I think this was, arguably, the most beautiful moment of the day in Tábor🇨🇿
Zdeněk Štybar finishing his final race🎬
On a CX bike
In his home country
In front of his friends & family
On the parkours where he won his 1st elite CX WC🌈
A perfect ending to a historic career👑
Heusden-Zolder 🏎️
One of my all-time favorite CX courses
Below, a 2022 throwback to what was, in my opinion, one of the best Wout Van Aert🥇vs Mathieu van der Poel🥈battles in recent years ⚔️
Throwing punches the ENTIRE race, ending with a spectacular final lap & sprint drama
Mathieu van der Poel’s 2022 Ronde van Vlaanderen race-winning🥇sprint👑
(after racing 6.5 hours / 279km at NP 353w🤯)
Peak power: 1,406 watts
5 sec⚡️: 1,383 watts
15 sec⚡️: 1,137 watts
Accelerating from 28.9 km/h to 58 km/h in 39 seconds
188w AP in the 400 meters pre-sprint
Egan Bernal getting stuck in & attacking on the final climb of Paris Nice 🔥
Love seeing this man BACK & on the attack 🚀
1 min⚡️: 577w (foot of Montainville)
5 min NP: 436w (MVille, km 136)
20 min NP: 374w / 5.1 w/kg at km 132
Cote d’Herbeville finale: 424w NP / 5:18 at km 142
Amstel Gold is so brutal - 33 climbs this year over 255km & nearly 3.3 meters of elevation gain🤢
Random fun fact for the day👇
In AGR22, Mathieu van der Poel spent a cumulative (not consecutive) 87 seconds of the race above 1,000 watts with 20+ 1,000 watt efforts 🤯
#AGR
E3 Harelbeke 2010
This is easily one of my all-time favorite attacks, and for me, a highlight of the Boonen x Cancellara rivalry
A winning move that only a rider like
@f_cancellara
could execute 🇨🇭
Launching on the left with a mere 2km to race and riding full gas to victory🚀
Majorly cool moment & 🎥 shot of the front two in
#GW24
today🌈
As a jersey collector, I❤️ this
But it’s equally unique given given the history between these two (Harrogate 2019) and the fact that we’ve never seen them 1 x 1 like we saw today⚔️
Excellent rivalry, pure class 🤝
Pogačar’s Monte Sante Marie 👑 was nothing short of historic
While we (sadly) don’t have ⚡️to analyze, MVDP’s 9th best time from ‘21 was 406w / 5.4 w/kg
But 96 sec slower🤯
He put MORE THAN 1 MIN (!) into Pidcock’s (legendary) ‘24 KOM👇
Then raced 72km solo & won by 2.7 min😱
🇧🇪 Hype for Saturday 🇧🇪
2022 Omloop throwback to when Wout was so confident in his form that he took off before even hitting the foot of the Bosberg and still dropped the entire peloton 😎🚀🧨
Can’t wait for Saturday 🤗
#OHM
#Omloop
#OmloophetNieuwsblad
🌈🏆 Peter Sagan, De Ronde 2016 🏆🌈
“As the cobbles reared up to 20%, I locked the upper part of my body, sat solid in the saddle and tried to imagine my legs as pistons driving the engine.”
- Peter Sagan, “My World”
The style similarities between Tom Boonen and Mathieu van der Poel are too good to ignore🕶️
The mullet in the 🌈bands, the
#wittebroek
and the 🟨Lambo's
It's super cool that pro cycling has a rockstar back in the peloton again 😎🎸
#Mullet
#LamboPoel
#Tommeke
#Vanderghini