Noticiero El Big Picture del Deporte: Velo News, Mathieu van der Poel, cyclist of the year

VeloNews Awards 2019: Mathieu van der Poel, cyclist of the year

In 2019 Mathieu van der Poel redefined what it meant to be a successful bicycle racer, taking huge wins across road, cyclocross, and cross-country mountain biking. 

• Primož Roglič had more wins. Julian Alaphilippe had 14 days in yellow. Annemiek van Vleuten had rainbow stripes, again and again.
• Yet Mathieu van der Poel’s accomplishments throughout the 2019 season stand apart from these great champions. Why? This season van der Poel accomplished something so incredibly rare in our sport. At age 24 he won at the highest international level in cyclocross, mountain bike racing, and professional road cycling.
• His victories came in thrilling fashion, against champions who are at the very pinnacle of their discipline. And he did it for months on end.
• The sport of cycling finds itself at the end of 2019—waiting to see what challenge van der Poel will tackle next. His stated goal is to win the 2020 Olympic mountain bike race in Tokyo. Beyond that, virtually any cycling race, from Paris-Roubaix to the Absa Cape Epic, seems well within his grasp.

References:

Velo News, VeloNews Awards 2019: Mathieu van der Poel, cyclist of the year, Fred Dreier, January 2, 2020.