Brutal…
10 Likes
Thats amazing.
Posted in a graphic here too:
10 Likes
Impressive number at the end of such a long hard stage.
1 Like
I’d love to do 1000w for 20 seconds when fresh, let alone after nearly 5 hours of 390w NP
10 Likes
Of course the power numbers are awesome…but even before seeing the power numbers I was just blown away by that performance. MVDP got caught out of position…van aert took his team to the front and put on pace to distance him. At that moment I thought MVDP was out of the race.
But instead MVDP rode through half the peloton on gravel…then perpetrated a wrinkle in time style tesseract to suddenly arrive in the break. Then destroyed the break to escape with a Tour de France winner and the World Champion before finally giving the World Champ a headfake attack followed by a plunge-in-the-knife-to-the-hilt-and-twist-the-blade attack to absolutely destroy the last two riders.
Back in the day we had a catch phrase for that combination of poor tactics but overpowering strength. Can’t say it these days but it certainly fits the situation here. Outstanding.
24 Likes
I could watch the last hour of that race over and over again and still believe that it was going to end differently.
As the commentators said, they (the break) looked like a group of friends who were out for a hard ride and just enjoying themselves.
5 Likes
His numbers were amazing, but I bet all those guys in the lead put up similar numbers. His ability to translate his power into race-winning moves consistently is extraordinary. It would be cool for someone to come up with a metric or a real-world description of “explosivity” other than NP, cause that guy has it 
1 Like
The thing about the numbers is the follow on to the acceleration. It’s crazy impressive to hit 700 watts for a minute after four hours of hard racing. But then to follow up that 700 watt minute with another four minutes averaging 500 watts is just bonkers.
Watching it, the amazing thing is that he did to Alaphalippe what Alaphilippe always does to everyone else: wait for the very steepest part of the race and then explode so hard that no one can follow.
8 Likes
I was initially disappointed he is moving away from off-road stuff, but getting to see these performances, yeah I get why he is expanding his road program. He is exhilarating to watch. I was pacing around my house the last 20 km haha
1 Like
I’d be happy to hit 1000w ever! Madness, evidence why it’s amongst the best race of the season (in my opinion).
1 Like
yeah, what a race. great to get a little more of it this year, those early gravel segments were awesome. Maybe this is a little template for the UCI in the future, work the gravel riding in a bit more. I know Strade Bianchi isn’t new, but it certainly feels relavent.
Also, MVDP is such a beast. Any race he’s in I expect him to win, then am suprised if he doesn’t.
I believe MVDP said that he was planning to train for the Tour on his mountain bike.
7 Likes
This looked like a carbon copy of what he did to Nino at Nove Mesto(?). A testing attack with 2 laps to go, then on the final lap he ramps up the pace a bit and then just explodes and leaves his opponent on the back foot without enough time or power to respond.
3 Likes
Folks are marveling at the power numbers (rightfully so), but look at the “recharging” of his dFRC (or whatever Xert calls it) after that long race.
I would’ve thought his FTP to be higher than 423…being such a big guy.
Don’t confuse height with weight. Most elite athletes fall in a very very narrow range of height vs weight (in other words very low BMI). So his W/kg is probably very high still.
Also, main thing that makes a pro road racer is the ability to ride for very long races near FTP and still have enough matches to throw down huge watts at the end. Take your average Cat 1 and they may be able to hang with the lead group during any given hour, but not for the whole race and especially not the finish
2 Likes
This is the thing that boggles my mind the most about the finish of races. I remember looking at some of the Poggio attacks from 2018 or 2019 and thinking, those aren’t too far out of the realm of possibility for me…if I tapered and hit the bottom of the climb fully rested. To do this at the end of four or five hours of racing…inconceivable
4 Likes
