2024 Pro thread

[Karvalo]

you must be a fun dude to talk to in real life, but i think i'll stop right here and DNF from this race of yours *to be right in the internet today*. congrats mate and cheers!

Come on man, you can be better than that.

[MDecius]

Was surprised that WVA was not at GW, given his lack of racing in 2024, figured he needs some race miles to get fully tuned for Flanders. Was he scheduled to start?

From what was said during the live coverage, no. He’s going to do Dwaars this week as the final tune up before Flanders on Sunday.

[jever98]

Does anybody else feel like Mads Pedersen doesn't get the respect and rating he deserves? He rarely gets mentioned as a top contender, but delivers a lot and at a super high level. I feel he should be mentioned more often in the same breath as Wout and Mathieu.

[TobinHatesYou]

Does anybody else feel like Mads Pedersen doesn't get the respect and rating he deserves? He rarely gets mentioned as a top contender, but delivers a lot and at a super high level. I feel he should be mentioned more often in the same breath as Wout and Mathieu.

I think he is massively underrated, but he's not one of the riders I would compare to WVA or MvdP in terms of spring classics campaigns. He's yet to win one of the 5 monuments. Pogacar is the most prolific winner of monuments in quite some time, having won 5 of the last 13...and he doesn't even race P-R.

[spokenwords]

I hear Mads get mentioned a lot. He seems to be mentioned in that top 5 contenders group.

[jever98]

I think he is massively underrated, but he's not one of the riders I would compare to WVA or MvdP in terms of spring classics campaigns. He's yet to win one of the 5 monuments. Pogacar is the most prolific winner of monuments in quite some time, having won 5 of the last 13...and he doesn't even race P-R.

No arguing about Pogi. It's more about Wout: his palmares on the road is very close to Mads (both 16 classics victories, 9 vs 8 GT stages for Wout, 1 vs 0 monuments for Wout, 1 vs road worlds for Mads). Yet he gets compared to Mathieu all the time or dreamed as an all time great, but Mads isn't.

[Ronin416]

Did we forget that Mads rode like a boss in wet cold conditions to capture his WC stripes and we saw MVDP crack from bonking and pull out of the race that day.

Mads is no doubt a strong rider, maybe with some luck in his side we’ll see more shine through as on Sunday.


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[TobinHatesYou]

I think he is massively underrated, but he's not one of the riders I would compare to WVA or MvdP in terms of spring classics campaigns. He's yet to win one of the 5 monuments. Pogacar is the most prolific winner of monuments in quite some time, having won 5 of the last 13...and he doesn't even race P-R.

No arguing about Pogi. It's more about Wout: his palmares on the road is very close to Mads (both 16 classics victories, 9 vs 8 GT stages for Wout, 1 vs 0 monuments for Wout, 1 vs road worlds for Mads). Yet he gets compared to Mathieu all the time or dreamed as an all time great, but Mads isn't.

It guess it also boils down to Wout being a lot more versatile and having more podiums while Mads has an impressive run of like top 5s. Also Mads has no utterly dominant solo wins…he is great in a reduced sprint.

[eins4eins]

I'll pick Pedersen for Roubaix this year. Absolute power wise, he's probably even better than MvdP or WvA. But he's doesn't race as smart as those other two. His manager often critized him for being too excited and wasting energy.
And he's got the strongest classic team behind him it seems. Lidl Trek was really impressive so far this season. I wouldn't even be surprised to see Stuvyen win DDV or one of the big races.

[Karvalo]

No arguing about Pogi. It's more about Wout: his palmares on the road is very close to Mads (both 16 classics victories, 9 vs 8 GT stages for Wout, 1 vs 0 monuments for Wout, 1 vs road worlds for Mads). Yet he gets compared to Mathieu all the time or dreamed as an all time great, but Mads isn't.

That's a good point - though it's 6 GT stages for Mads and only 2 at the Tour vs all 9 there for Wout. Then it's about style of wins, the ability to win a flat bunch sprint one day then go off on a solo mountain raid the next - or to win at all while also being a key mountain domestique - is quite unique.

Then, subjectively, I'd say there's a sense that Wout (like Sagan) is currently underperforming at the monuments vs his talent, while Mads is doing just about as well as he can.

[petal666]

Did we forget that Mads rode like a boss in wet cold conditions to capture his WC stripes and we saw MVDP crack from bonking and pull out of the race that day.

How did MVDP finish 43rd if he pulled out of the race?

[Karvalo]

No arguing about Pogi. It's more about Wout: his palmares on the road is very close to Mads (both 16 classics victories, 9 vs 8 GT stages for Wout,

Actually, where are these numbers coming from? As far as I can tell Mads doesn't have 16 senior one day victories total, let alone 16 classics. I'm pretty sure Wout doesn't have that many either, though again he's certainly got more major ones.

[jever98]

Sorry, I misread procuclingstats. They list 41 victories for Mads, 46 for Wout.

[Ronin416]

Did we forget that Mads rode like a boss in wet cold conditions to capture his WC stripes and we saw MVDP crack from bonking and pull out of the race that day.

How did MVDP finish 43rd if he pulled out of the race?

Bad presumption that day. Seeing him totally fade, I thought he pulled out.


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[Karvalo]

Sorry, I misread procuclingstats. They list 41 victories for Mads, 46 for Wout.

Ok. Well I think it's clear then that, rainbow stripes aside, there's clear daylight between Wout and Mad's palmares.