Live Slow Ride Fast on Van der Poel at the Games, his fierce (summer) run and OS rejection Pogacar

In the latest episode of the cycling podcast Live Slow Ride Fast —it had been 40 (!) days since the previous episode came online—the gentlemen talked for almost two hours about all sorts of things. Mathieu van der Poel also passed by briefly, especially the world champion's life.

Talking about the Vuelta, vacations far and near, the Olympic road race ... Almost everything was discussed in the Stefan Bolt and Laurens Ten Dam program. And so also world champion Van der Poel, who, according to the guests present, always receives a lot of pressure from the outside world. 'One always assumes that he is going to act to that level. And if there's even a small crack in that armor, the dogs eat him raw. At the Olympics, it was against Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel. And then you have quite a bit to knock off...'

Ten Dam on fierce running performance of Van der Poel

"Van der Poel surely had the best day of his career at the World Championships in Glasgow," the men agreed. "He must realize that too. You don't have days like that that often. Maybe that's why he needs to race differently, with that in mind. He assumed Glasgow legs at the Games, but that was exceptional."

Then MVDP's fierce run came along in the podcast. Mathieu spent his vacation in the sun. And there, he ran 4.34 min/km at an average of 114 heartbeats per minute. "That was quite a flex," the men laughed. "In terms of condition, he should be able to run 3.00 min/km. But then he probably has some muscle and joint pains, which could bother him for a while."

Finally, the men discussed some things about Van der Poel's companion and fellow world star, Tadej Pogacar, who was quite angry with the Slovenian federation around the Olympics. "I think the non-selection of his girlfriend was indeed the reason for skipping the Games," Ten Dam said. "If Urška Žigart had been selected, Tadej would have just gone along. I think Pogi was rightly angry about that, about that conflict of interest," he went on to refer to the fact that the Slovenian national coach did not select Zigart as the country's best rider. Still, someone from a Continental team - where the national coach himself works.