Opinion: This Giro d'Italia highlights the unbearable weight of Mathieu van der Poel’s massive talent

After wisecracks about eating spaghetti with ketchup and pizza with pineapple, Mathieu van der Poel almost pulled off his biggest joke yet on Wednesday – a victory in a mountain stage of his debut Giro d’Italia. Not content with a stage win and the pink jersey at the earliest point of asking back in Hungary in Stage 1, the Dutchman went on the attack yet again on Wednesday’s Stage 16 as he continued going deep into the third, and most mountainous week, of a race most people expected him to leave at the halfway point.

Ad/> Although Van der Poel insisted on the eve of the Giro that it was his intention to make it all the way to Verona, few thought the 27-year-old would not only go the distance – but be competing for the spoils in a stage featuring over three-thousand metres of vertical ascent. Giro d'ItaliaVan der Poel’s madcap attacks are prep for Tour de France – BlytheAN HOUR AGO That Van der Poel struck out early on the Passo del Tonale in Stage 17 – just days after he starred in the breakaway on the opening Alpine stage to Cogne – is the mark of a natural competitor willing to roll up his sleeves and get stuck in even on days which really don’t suit his characteristics of a puncheur and fast finisher.

Van der Poel’s madcap attacks are prep for Tour de France – Blythe Buitrago wins Stage 17 after crash; Van der Poel shines, Carapaz keeps pink Giro d’Italia Stage 17 as it happened — Buitrago wins as Landa moves onto podium He attacks, it seems, quite simply because he can – and because to do otherwise would be admitting defeat. His mindset seems to be simple: what’s the point of getting to the end for the sake of simply getting to the end? He might as well have called it a day in Reggio Emilia along with Caleb Ewan,