Mathieu van der Poel Olympic Crash: He Didn’t Know Ramp Had Been Removed

I think I am a bit in love with Neff.

I’m no riding god and I’m sure I’d think different if it was me riding it but I’m not sure that drop is as hard as it looks.

There seemed to be a good run in and out and the downslope is almost the perfect same shape as the parabolic flight you’d get by riding off it at an appropriate speed. As long as you don’t nosedive to the flat bit (MVDP style, or as Neff was forced to do by PFP) then it’s well within the capability of Olympic MTBers, or if it isn’t then as I said before there are B and C lines. It doesn’t then really matter how much you clear the landing lip by, the slope will catch you almost perfectly.

The line of flight on the pic of the previous page wouldn’t touch the ramp, to use that in practice you’d have to be going substantially slower than ‘race pace’ and so as someone said before I think it was there so that anyone that has an ‘oh shit’ moment in practice doesn’t then have a crash that puts them out. I can see that then taking it out before race day enables people to practise ‘properly’, but I’m not sure it would really, riding at the right speed I’d bet you can’t see the ramp over the edge of the drop.

It was same course designer as London and that too had a couple of blind drops (I had the chance to ride it a few months after) – we were coached and looked at the obstacles before riding and several weren’t technically that hard but were built in a way to **** with your head – looking like drops into the abyss but after you looked at them you could see they were just a small gap that frankly you’d have to almost try to NOT clear.

eg: here at 0:23

Because on lap one when everyone’s in a big group elbow to elbow and it’s a bit nervy it can be the safe option while the race settles down. If one of the riders in front had stalled, fallen, whatever, it gives you more options to avoid them and not lose time or crash yourself. Same as using the B lines on lap one to avoid traffic jams.

Neff and PFP do have previous form. Cyclocross 2018. Neff breaks elbow and collarbone…

I’m with you markgraylish, that course was ace. A mountain bike race in 2021 should require full sus and a dropper, and this one did. I’d watch a lot more xc if it’s like this. What a great day for British mountain biking.

As for the drop, the dude just messed up. Extra respect to Pidcock for not running him over.

“Mathieu van der Poel, another of the pre-race favourites, pulled out after the fifth lap having crashed heavily early on. “He went in super slow and I backed off because I knew that wasn’t going to end well,” Pidcock said.”

He’ll be back – his wins are often spectacular, and so are his disappointments. According to Wielerflits he may aim to bounce back at the MTB Worlds in Val di Sole – it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he won both the XCC & XCO World titles…as Pidcock will be at the Vuelta.

https://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/mathieu-van-der-poel-gaat-via-wk-mountainbike-naar-wk-op-de-weg/

A mountain bike race in 2021 should require full sus and a dropper,

100% agree. If riders (professional or grass roots) don’t like that, they can go to CX – which many of the subjects of this thread also race successfully.

If I may backtrack a bit – a full suspension with a dropper should be the ‘ideal solution’ to such a race, rather than mandatory.

Obviously there isn’t anything stopping you (although they may have something to say about your dropped bar fixed gear) but it should be an equipment disadvantage.

One that might be overcome at the amateur by having significantly more skill than your competitors.

MVP is one of the most skillfull bike riders in the world . Why would he choose to slow down and roll that rock jump even if the ramp had been there ? That would cause him to lose momentum and time when he is quite capable of jumping it like all the rest of the fiel

Looked like he was going to pump down the ramp to me (hence nosediving so hard), which might not have been all that much slower maybe…?

Interesting points.
to add, if he had meant to pump, why would he end up sort of half-jumping it?

Also consider that the women knew it would be in place and many of them effectively did the jump direct to the rocks on landing missing out the ramp anyway.
So rather than anything shady, did VdP just get caught between pumping and jumping and just mess it up? or does it look like he was trying to pump it and ended up pumping thin air?

What a load of nonsense. If I want to enter an XC race on a hard-tail with no dropper that is up to me.

And if you’re not able to ride the main lines, take the chicken-lines instead.

MvP mis-judged. Did he mean to jump it? Did he mean to roll it? Form his socials I’d say it was a moment of indecision that even he isn’t sure of. No mystery, no conspiracy. The guy’s human.