In cycling tactics is everything, we all hear that without a good head you can never win big in cycling even if you're the strongest rider, and sure enough that's true as rarely the strongest rider wins a stage, which is something that makes the sport so unpredictable, refreshing and forces everyone to be at their best level at all times. Sure enough as riders get more and more experienced they learn how to perfect their race craft, having good and experiences teammates around also plays a big role, and in the last decade we've seen this tactical aspect increase exponentially. Whether it's in sprint stages, mountain stages or the hilly classics frequently you see one formula, keep your powder dry until as late as possible, and spend one bullet only. What I mean by that is, of course, make only one move. The Ardennes classics are one of the best examples of that change, what used to be a trio of races characterized by early attacks and epic performances turned into - don't judge me - a relatively boring set of races, where only the final climb matters, wheter it's the Mur de Huy or the Côte de la Roche-Aux-Faucons, and everything ridden beforehand for the main riders was just the responsability of being a cyclist.
And in the mountains you'd find the same, the decade was marked by the development of incredibly strong mountain trains like Team Sky or more recently Jumbo-Visma, and mountain stages became in a very sizeable amount of races a long time-trial up the biggest mountains in pro cycling, and races like the cobbled classics became increasingly more loved as they kept this tradition of agressive racing and not being afraid to make moves.
With all this, in 2018 and 2019 a new generation started to rise up the WorldTour ranks. Just to name a few, riders like Egan Bernal, Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogacar, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock quickly took the top step of the sport despite their incredibly young age, and every year there's a swarm of new talents that immediately succeed despite their inexperience. Between them came Mathieu van der Poel aswell, who like Van Aert is a tad older than the remaining names but came around in that period after having conquered just about everything in the Cyclocross scene.
And with the rise of this new generation we've been seeing the return, gradually, of wild racing where we have some of the top riders looking to destroy the race, use unpredictable tactics to break apart races as those tactics had became somewhat unused. The headliner of these is quite regularly Mathieu van der Poel, who as a proven CX dominator and frequent winner both on MTB and on the lower level Europe Tour calendar came in with understandably high expectations. And he's outdone them, having several wins in World Tour stage-races, national championships, Dwaars door Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold Race, Strade Bianche, Ronde van Vlaanderen and as of today, the Tour de France alongside a yellow jersey, despite being just his 2nd ever raceday in a Grand Tour. And he does it so easily it seems, all of this since just 2019 when his team turned Pro Continental.
Mathieu is one of the riders who comes in with the mindset of a junior into an Elite peloton and that's a combination of several factors. Firstly because he clearly enjoys it, and is widely loved because of it, secondly because he is naturally talented in a way few riders in the peloton are, and thirdly because he keeps snatching wins this way. In 2020 he had altitude training and a big block of racing in Italy that didn't suit his skills and naturally we saw him suffer, likely also get some more experience in and learn how to race in the big calendar (it's easy to forget that he's never actually been part of a World Tour team). However after so many years of an increasingly conservative racing trend in the peloton his reckless style of racing is an incredible breath of fresh air and seeing how he's capable of winning despite deploying, at times, tactics that are far from the best - Amstel Gold Race 2019 the best example - brings in the surprise factor once again into the spotlight. That's exactly what he did today as he defied everything and everyone by attacking at the base of the first ascent of the Mur de Bretagne.
As I looked at my screen I could only think "what on earth...", the first 30 seconds I was just thinking what is the purpose of this? Nobody went with him, although he did jokingly ask - at least - Tadej Pogacar during the stage if he wanted to attack together.
Sure he can get a gap but a raging Tour de France peloton will be chasing him down flat roads, this is quite literally impossible to succeed. As he grit his teeth in the tough gradients of the Mur de Bretagne I was, as I imagine many people were, fearing for his chances of winning the stage, specially as he had taken a tough hit the day prior.
Like in the first lap, Alpecin did once again a brilliant job positioning him into the final climb, with a special mention to Silvan Dillier who really outdid himself.
As you could see though he never exposed himself too much. Looking at the pictures before the right turn into the Mur you could see several of the Ineos riders gritting their teeth, it was an hellish pace and sure enough Geraint Thomas seemed to pay the price for that exposure. Van der Poel sat around 10th wheel when the pace really racked up, with a single teammate besides him, exactly like in the first lap, and surely he had seen the weather report in the morning which indicated a tailwind up the climb, ideal for attackers.
And then van der Poel played to his strenghts. One of the big weapons that he, alongside many other pros that have or had a background in CX have is that inconsistent efforts are completely natural to them, but most importantly the ability to clear lactate after a big effort are seemingly significantly higher than that of a "regular" road racer. This is why you usually see the likes of van der Poel, Pidcock or Julian Alaphilippe constantly attack, because they have this natural capacity to do brutal accelarations, and after a short break repeat them with the same amount of power, time after time after time, and van der Poel is clearly a great example of that. You'll notice most of the headliners in this new generation have a background in an off-road discipline, and it's a completely different type of training/racing than that of someone who only rides on the road. It's also why you would see van der Poel putting out 1400 watts in his Strade Bianche attacks at the pointy end of a devastating race.
In the Mur you saw him deploy this strategy in that way EXACTLY. Looking closely at his ascent he had a tactic in mind, as you can see he was the first one to react to Nairo Quintana's move, which confirmed he was having great legs, when Quintana slowed down he slowed down and looked around.
Then Sonny Colbrelli attacked, van der Poel reacted, slowed down and looked around. Never going in a consistent pace, always taking some seconds of rest and follow those up with big accelerations.
And after he managed to block every move within the steep section of the climb he entered his ground. Weighing, according to reliable sources, 75Kg, he would be much better off attacking in the 6% gradients the riders had at this section (9% in the screen isn't accurate) than in the maximum 13% grades lower down the hill. In these gradients the W/Kg don't have as much importance, he waited until the road got more gentle and then did his move. And of course, he was 'seemingly' the strongest rider in the day, not being a GC rider he was let of the leash and got a deserved and amazing win.
Mathieu van der Poel is the rider that is breaking the script that's been built over the last decade that the more conservative the rider the better. Although sometimes questionable, his characteristic offensive and unpredictable style of racing is not only being tremendously popular but, by succeeding, is also inspiring more riders into having this mindset when it comes to racing. And who knows, maybe someday we'll have back the wild days of ridiculously agressive and exciting races, and see a peloton that is never afraid to loose in order to win...
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