During the past couple of years, the argument has been made that the Men’s European racing has been boring because of Mathieu van der Poel’s utter dominance. His generational combination of power and handling have made him nearly impossible to beat this year and the overwhelming favorite to capture his second Elite World Championship in Valkenburg-Limburg next weekend.
Regardless of the quality of the racing, one thing that is apparent is Van der Poel clearly enjoys riding his bike and putting on a good show for fans. Whether it be pushing it through slushy corners at Druivencross or getting air and unleashing his trademark tailwhip, for Van der Poel it’s all about having fun (and winning a lot of bike races).
According to Van der Poel, one of his favorite places to have fan is at the beach. “As a sportsman it’s very important to keep having fun.” But I think it’s important in everything you do that having fun should be first. I do that by not sticking to tight plans so I can do my own thing and when I have the freedom then I prefer to just ride in the sand.” [translated]
A new video from Shimano shows Van der Poel and his teammates having fun during a day at the beach. In addition to showing off his impressive skills, it also has some new training ideas you may be able to use.
There are one-handed turns:
It’s All About Having Fun one-handed turns. photo: YouTube screen capture
And of course, bunny-hopping the cooler:
Bunny-hopping the cooler. photo: YouTube screen capture
See the full video below. Note the interesting bike-kit combination, with the old Beobank-Corendon (now Corendon-Circus) kits on new Canyon Inflites.
