{"id":496227,"date":"2026-02-22T06:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T06:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496227\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T06:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T06:18:09","slug":"paul-magnier-reveals-the-harsh-reality-of-racing-against-his-idol-mathieu-van-der-poel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496227\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Magnier reveals the harsh reality of racing against his idol Mathieu van der Poel"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n“I only want to start if I know I can perform,” he explained in an interview with Wieler Revue<\/a>. “That applies just as much to the Tour de France. I don’t want to rush anything in my development.”Magnier learned exactly how much work he still has to do after racing against Van der Poel last year. At the Le Samyn<\/a> race, the Dutch World Champion beat Magnier in a direct sprint to the finish line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“My second place in Le Samyn behind Mathieu last year opened my eyes in that regard,” Magnier admitted. “He was from another planet compared to me there. Later the same thing happened in the Renewi Tour.”<\/p>\n

Instead of feeling defeated, Magnier used this experience as motivation to keep working hard. “I still have enough time to close the gap, but for now he is still a lot stronger. He made me realize that I must not skip steps in my development,” the young Frenchman noted. “Mathieu is an example for me, because he has so much class. He is the type of rider I want to become in the future.”<\/p>\n

\"Magnier\"\/<\/p>\n

Magnier has already won twice this season<\/p>\n

Power numbers and mutual respect<\/p>\n

Magnier’s former trainer, Roman Vanstaen, confirmed the rider’s deep admiration for Van der Poel. He recalled a conversation during the Frenchman’s first high-altitude training camp.<\/p>\n

“The first time at altitude camp I asked him about his role models. Then he answered: ‘Mathieu van der Poel,'” Vanstaen said. “Paul loves the attractive way of racing and Mathieu’s flair. That has an appeal to young riders.”<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the respect goes both ways. After their tough battle at Le Samyn, Van der Poel was curious about the young rider’s physical abilities. According to Vanstaen, the Dutch star actually asked Tim Merlier to find out about Magnier’s power data.<\/p>\n

“In that sprint against Mathieu in Le Samyn, Paul reached a peak value of over 1400 watts,” Vanstaen revealed. “In short, a good sprint, but unlike Mathieu, he no longer had that extra acceleration.”<\/p>\n

Magnier has had an oustanding start of the 2026 season. He made his debut in January, finishing second at the Cl\u00e0ssica Comunitat Valenciana – Gran Premi Val\u00e8ncia, only behind Dylan Groenewegen. He then moved to Portugal, where he has dominated the sprints at Volta ao Algarve, winning two out of two with striking dominance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I only want to start if I know I can perform,” he explained in an interview with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,249421,77973,165754,214320,85,167262],"class_list":{"0":"post-496227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-le-samyn","12":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","13":"tag-paris-roubaix","14":"tag-paul-magnier","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tour-of-flanders"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}