I suspect that Thibau would benefit from work with a Sport Psychologist.
His frustration cost him a lot of time yesterday.
Thibau is 22. Heās the Belgian and European cx champion, and heās one of the only 9 men who have won the Koppenberg Cross in the last 25 years. He has 12 wins on the road, and he finished the TDF this season. Heās doing just fine.
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Iām a big fan. But Thibau is inconsistent.
He wants to be dominant in cyclocross. To manage that he needs his head in the game.
Didnāt both of the whippets use sports psychologists early on?
Heās. 22.
Folks should take a look at where WvA and VdP were at when they were 22.
No top ten at a monument. No TdF finish. Not even close.
They were both able to be super consistent at CX because they are generational talents, and because that was the entire focus of their season. This is the first time since he was a Jr that Thibau is going to ride a more or less full CX season, and he just won the 4th most important race on the calendar. He had such a great damn season last year that he canāt even display the 2nd most prominent jersey in the sport unless and until he doesnāt win it back next week. And heās currently the odds-on favorite to do so, at least according to the betting sites I just looked at.
Heās. Just. Fine.
Agreed. Thibau has had amazing success. But heās also inconsistent. And to loose three minutes on a course like Sundayās, he clearly lost the script.
Suggesting sports psychology is not an insult. Wout has worked with mental coach Rudy Heylen for years. Mathieu hasnāt made public any work with a SP, but it sure seemed like he did something: he went from being somewhat of a headcase to being a methodical brute, from āhaving no tacticsā to displaying cold, calculated racecraft.
For years when the whippets were coming into the (cross) elite races, their back and forth largely turned on who most had their head in the game. Iām pretty sure they both see the value of sports psychology. Why wouldnāt Thibau? And how is it an insult to suggest?
Itās an insult/ridiculous to suggest that a 22 year old kid who had a bad day needs help, or even that he āneedsā to be more consistent. There are three major classification seriesā, and itās a long damn season. The best way to guaran-damn-tee that you wonāt do well in all of them is to push too darn hard in a single race when the cause on that day is already lost.
On Sunday he was, what, 30 seconds off the lead after 4 bike changes and at least two crashes. He pulled the plug after yet another crash, and soft pedaled in to the finish. The guy who finished second in the race didnāt even try to finish when he was having a bad day on Saturday, ditto the guy in 4th and the guy who won the National Trophy race on Sunday.
At this point, Nys has won 50% of the races he has entered. If weāre going to judge things based on a ridiculously small sample size, maybe we could base things on that.
Of course, no one would likely have anything at all to say about this if he hadnāt made his displeasure known mid-race, and theyāre also conveniently ignoring that despite - and concurrent with - those displays, he was riding himself right back into contention each and every time.
Until that last crash. And, heyā¦ no one seems to be remarking about the lack of any display at that point, when he was actually giving things up for the day.
Itās great that this is happening, though. With Iserbyt out, we might have been forced to go through an entire season without people complaining about an incredibly dominant and successful racer who doesnāt act like a robot.
Again, Iām a fan. I was a fan even before being at Thibauās first World Cup win, seeing him ride a feature I can barely run up (and no one else could ride). But this wasnāt his first bad day.
As far as being unintentionally insulting and ridiculous, my apologies. But at least you got in your rant, right?
Did you happen to know that VdP has only won the CX World Cup once, due largely to his inconsistency in performance across an entire CX season?
That and the fact that he openly hated having to come to the US to compete. It was great being there that one time he raced Jingle Cross, though.
Now that the World Cup is shorter/condensed some people seem to hope that Wout and MvdP will go for it, but I kind of doubt it. The World Championship will be MvdPās main goal until he has the outright record, and it might still tempt Wout. Beyond that, I donāt think either have much to prove in CX. But Iād love to see Thibau take it to them bothā¦
If Iām ārantingā itās because I fairly often work with Jr and U-23 riders for a living, and the fact that people make these cavalier assumptions about them and place these ridiculous assumptions upon them is a huge problem that I have had to deal with, personally. Itās nonsense, and Iām not terribly interested in pretending otherwise.
Thibau is 22. Heās still a kid. Heās going to f**k up. That should be more than OK.
Thibau has handled an immense amount of pressure growing up in Svenās orbit. They had a fāing teevee show about it, didnāt they? And heās already done more on the road than his father ever did.
But Thibau himself said āI donāt want to win. I want to dominate.ā If sports psych helps him do that, I hope he doesnāt hesitate.
āYouāll be fine, kid. You just need to grow the fuck up, and that will take time. Weāre done here. Pay ā¬200 on your way out, OK?ā
Came clear to me watching Remco early on, and others who might act outā¦ā¦theyāre so so young. In fact when they retire at 31ā¦ā¦theyāre so young.
Itās fun watching them mature. Not so fun for them having to do so under such scrutiny. Much easier as a nobody.
I expect that a lot of these newer generation of riders who turned pro so early will retire early. Racing is difficult, training is difficult, everyone is constantly so lean. There is just a ton of pressure and I think itāll cook a bunch of them out early.
As a long time middle school 8th grade teacher where most of the kids were applying to private high schools - it was irksome how much we pretended these 8th graders were perfect. Youth are designed to screw things up (and ideally adjust and grow from that). A willingness to try and then adjust seemed much more valuable to me than not being willing to risk ever coloring outside the lines. The level at the top end of all sports - but cycling here - is SO HIGH that being compared to what previous generations have done is wholly unfair. Just to make the squad for a classic race or grand tour the level is super high (only the best of previous generations could even make the squad much less compete at the pointy end). I have to think the 0.5% advantage the best riders have is a huge pressure bc if youāre off even a little how do you hang with Pogi/Remco/Mads/Wout/MVdP etcā¦And the discipline to get to that level ā¦. yeah - crazy hard.
100%
Screwing up is good and one of the best ways to learn. One could argue that as a developing athlete, if youāre not making mistakes then youāre not really growing. Itās crazy that thereās so much pressure on young elite athletes these days and perfection is expected of them. I agree with @likes_bikes that this is likely to lead to premature burnout and a lot of these kids are likely to have short careers as a result.
As for Thibau, sure, the way he handled those mechanicals showed a lack of maturity, but thatās not abnormal for someone his age, and Iām sure what can all think of much older, more āmatureā athletes who would have responded similarly or worse. I think afterwards he looks back on that experience and realizes there was a more productive way to deal with that stuff, and takes that experience moving forward, as a result becoming a better rider. As it should be.
How many of us here would be pissed off if we had that many mechanicals and falls? I for one donāt think Iād do so well.
Speaking of the young guns, Iām curious how Lamperti develops at EF. He didnāt do much at QS from my recollection, but then again I donāt know if he had much opportunity for that.
I lost track of him too. Hope heās getting seasoned and not traumatized.
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Lazkano released a statement denying any wrong doing. I would respect someone and grant a 1 time reduced sentence if someone just admitted it instead of wasting more time and money.