Mathieu van der Poel calling Stage 6 on Strava “the easiest race I’ve ever done” is the best
The 200 km race was won by Démare
Photo by:
Sirotti
We all love easy days. Coffeeshop rides. A nice little spin to the lake with friends. For the Alpecin-Fenix rider, an easy ride sounds like a 200 km flat stage of the Giro.
On Thursday, Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) took the stage ahead of Caleb Ewan Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) in a photo finish. This is his second stage in a row. Yesterday Arnaud Démare didn’t have to deal with Mark Cavendish and Caleb Ewan in Wednesday’s bunch sprint in Messina, Sicily, and the Frenchman also took a victory.
MvdP was happy to cruise in the pack, after earlier stages where he took some fine results, including a win and a podium. He’d been training hard for the Giro in Spain the week prior. At a training camp he was doing some serious efforts: multiple hill intervals for a minute up a climb that has a similar gradient to the opening stage, a 195 km ride from Budapest to Visegrád.
Mathieu van der Poel’s watts on the uphill sprint are every bit as bonkers as you’d expect
Thursday, however, he was content to take it easy, perhaps looking ahead to more stage victories.
The Dutchman finished the 200.10km in 5:12:36, with an average wattage of 159W. As you can see, Strava doesn’t lie, and it wasn’t a particularly tough stage for him, and shows that he truly is a talent when a five hour stage in one of the biggest races in the world can be a breeze.
You can check out all his numbers on Strava.com
