MVDP didn’t even have to do his trademark sit-down and breath heavily for a bit at the end, he seemed fine.
As for Pidcock, I’m not sure he’ll ever have the power to cope with the bigger riders in the classics, he needs far bigger hills or a stage race with a team to protect him.
I disagree, I think he definitely has the power and fitness to be competitive in these races. He isn’t a big guy, but his off-road chops more than speak for his all-around strength and ability to hit the gas when needed. INEOS is still trying to figure out how to best play his hand of cards. They are a team that has been built around grand tour contending for so long, it looks like they are trying to find their one-day race groove sometimes. Their positioning made no sense at all if Pidcock was their focus. Riders all over the course
What…
2021 was his first year as pro, look at the results.
I often forget how young those guys are. Same with Pog, I think a few years of experience would have come a long way on Sunday. I mean I’m 23 years old an always think that I’ve got plenty time to mature as a rider. And then there’s these guys, even younger than me and winning pro races.
… and Olympic and Cylcocross World Champion.
Out sprinted Wout Van Aert fot the win at De Brabantse Pijl - La Flèche Brabançonne cant be that lacking in power. 
If you enjoyed that, I think you will enjoy this too 
Here’s my own analysis of Van der Peol’s effort:
The model is based on the Peronnet and Thibault power duration model loosely fitted to the race MMP but also taking into account the W’ balance.
You can read a bit more about the project here: https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/t/power-and-load-modelling-looking-past-tss/
Pmax: 1470 Watts
AWC: 41,000 Joules
FTP: 426 Watts
Workout length: 6:40:57
Average power: 280.6 (Watts)
Normalised Power: 353.0 (Watts)
Intensity Factor: 0.829
TSS: 459.0
TSS MAP: 411.0 (89.6%)
TSS AWC: 47.9 (10.4%)
Difficulty: 122.048
For me, the amount of time spent with W’ balance partially, or in some cases almost completely depleted shows just how hard this race is.
Here’s the last couple of hours W’ balance:
The first big dig at 14:53 is the Berg Ten Haute.
Things settle down a bit after that but really explode of the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg.
There’s a bit of recovery before the Koppenberg, Steenbeekdries and the Taainberg where things are very hard all of the way through.
Interestingly, the last ascents of the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg don’t draw W’ balance down as far as before but it was clear that Van der Poel was right on the limit as he drew back up to Pogacar’s wheen on the very steepest section.
The last few kilometers into Oudenaarde were easy enough to get that tank filled up again so that he could sprint well this year.
The maximum difficulty (30 minute weighted average of the rate that TSS accrues) occurs at the top of the Taainberg. At that point he had accrued TSS at a rate of 122 TSS per hour for 30 minutes!
