MVDP numbers at Strade BIanche

I have no idea, but I have a hard time believing the dislocated shoulder was actually dislocated. He seemed to be moving his arm fine after the race during interviews. Damaged yes, but dislocated? Perhaps some hyperbole, but what do I know.

I have a dodgy right shoulder, its pretty easy to pop out and slip back in with a bit of work. It would depend how he dislocated it, sometimes you can just pop it back in and be good to go, albeit a bit sore.

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Probably over trained from too much SS work.

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Just another anecdote to support @THowe

I have two very ‘loosely’ put together shoulders that I can dislocated pretty easily. Even with more severe dislocations a large portion of the pain goes away once the joint is back together

Not to say a traumatic dislocation can’t be an extremely severe injury, but I’ve dislocated shoulders in crashes 3x and was unable to ride afterwards once…so totally possible he dislocated it

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The same. My left arm can pop out and pop in into the socket when when I move it the wrong way during some load. Old injury and when it pop in back to the socket it pains but it pass away after some time. When I have dislocated it for the first time it was out of the socket and I was undable to do anything untill going Lethal Weapon 2.

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Tiz but a scratch. https://youtu.be/oNRYgKyZBAI

I was convinced he said 300W in the interview too!! I’d seen it quoted as 200W prior which is why it stuck out so much.

Seems about right as I’m sure he’d have been doing more than 200W up those inclines. Even in the small ring he was still hauling.

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When a WT rider says “200W” it’s like you or I saying “I was going backwards.” It’s hyperbole–they can’t imagine anyone putting out 200W… :slight_smile:

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I’m almost sure that he said 300W…

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BUT, BUT, he’s one of the only, if not the only rider that knows he has a shot with a long bomb. That’s not desperation, that’s talent and skill knowing he can make it stick. Look what he did 50K out in Tirreno.

Except he didn’t hit the shot in KBK and only made it in Tirreno after the ball bounced around on the rim and then barely dropped in. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Seemed a pretty smart tactic at SB to me. He clearly knew he had much higher FTP than the other two riders so he worked hard to keep the pace higher knowing that by the finish they would have been working at much higher IF than he had been and that he would have more in the tank for the final climb. Pretty simple tactics tbh, short punchy climb requires the freshest legs possible.

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There was an interesting article on Velonews about some of MVPD’s decisions/tactics during the races where he has gone off the front. It makes sense why he is making the choices he’s making in some of the races.

The link isn’t working right now. Velonews Van der Poel Article

I’m worried about MVDP but not for the usual reason.

I believe his numbers but think he could be bad news for cycling for 2 reasons.

  1. If he is head and shoulders above everyone else races will just be about who is going to come second. Sport needs to be amongst equals for it to be interesting. Domination by just one person or team becomes boring no matter how good the exception is.

  2. Cycling has power meters and Zwift for a reason. It demands the least in terms of actual skill of any sport. It is almost all about 2 numbers W/kg. That’s why cycling was first with a power measure and why it was the first sport to be turned into a video game. It’s easy to reduce it to simple components. No matter the hype if all everything really comes down is a simple equation then its sad. There is a reason cycling is in the lower divisions in terms of sports and why, even at the highest level, many teams are not financially viable and rely on sugar daddies to fund them.

Trainerroad is an American company. The USA has the world’s most successful sport organisation, the NFL. One top NFL player could fund all the world’s best cycle teams and still have plenty of money to spend on fast cars.

The NFL has always understood that the secret of its success is competition and deliberately rigs the system in favour of the underdog to make this happen.

My view is that cycling needs a fundamental change of mindset and should look at the NFL as an example and be imaginative (so so difficult for cyclists).

That was always the case but if for the next 10 years we will see that the only time anyone other than MDVP wins something is when he isnt there or not trying we are in for a hard time.

There is a lot that cycling could learn from any other sports. There was a rapha podcast about this and I agree that cycling is so many years behind in terms of “monetization” of the sport that it is no different than curling or other niche disciplines. But it will not change. The only thing I want to happen is red bull organizing crits in us after signing J.Williams as an athlete- they would be blast to watch.

I would be not affraid too much about MVP domination as recently we have seen couple of times he can be dominated by other riders, not to mention that he is so “raw” with his road cycling he burns out very often.

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The evidence suggests otherwise…see golf under Tiger, the NBA under Michael Jordan, the MFL under the Patriots, etc.

This is a massive oversimplification. Neither of the “Big 3” came close to winning Milan-San Remo and the semi-classics this year have been some of the best racing we have seen in a long time.

Because it is a broken business model…the race organizers hid all the power and revenue. It has nothing to do with the level of competition.

FIFA would like a word.

Except that isn’t happening,and MdvP will never win the Tour, the sports biggest event. The reality is that to the general public,he will never be seen as “dominant” because he won’t be competitive in the biggest event.

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Is NFL the world’s most successful sports org?

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In terms of revenue - there is no better league than NFL in any sport. There is no better financial entity than NFL - and it is done with sport that is only understood by Americans:)

NFL rigs stuff? Where’s the proof on that?

The NFL is successful because you buy into a team, not a player. Players come and go, teams never leave. NBA people rooted for players evident by MJ, Kobe, LBJ. MJ left and the NBA fell apart. Baseball is a mix of player and team.

From the professional athletes perspective cycling is a joke. Teams always change, riders always move. Only thing consistent is inconsistency. I can understand why people just root for riders from there country. Every year there are teams that lack funding. The riders get minimal amount of the money. I wish there was a way to make it better.

I don’t know about rig, but the league is definitely set up to limit bigger market teams from exploiting the obvious financial advantage, no?
Fully agree that the idea of teams in cycling is a bit of a different thing to some other sports, however I also think individual greatness is a big attractor of fans in a different way.
Touchy subject but when Lance was ruling the tour I think a lot of folks were way more engaged then previously.