{"id":426587,"date":"2026-02-15T06:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T06:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/426587\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T06:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T06:12:14","slug":"van-der-poel-says-famous-family-genetics-heavily-influence-his-incredible-whoop-data-sticky-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/426587\/","title":{"rendered":"Van der Poel says famous family genetics heavily influence his incredible Whoop data \u2013 Sticky Bottle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mathieu van der Poel on his way to his eighth senior gold medal at the cyclocross Worlds two weeks ago, capturing his 13th world title, junior and senior, in the road, cyclocross and gravel disciplines (Photo: Toby Watson)<\/p>\n

Mathieu van der Poel has been one of the stars of cycling \u2013 both road and cyclocross \u2013 since he was a teenager, winning the junior World Championships in cyclocross as a 16-year-old in 2012 and the following year winning junior gold at both the cyclocross and road race Worlds.<\/p>\n

And now the Alpecin-Premier Tech rider says he believes his genetics significantly influence his cardiac capacity \u2013 for recovery and performance \u2013 revealed in his latest Whoop data. That perhaps comes as no surprise as his father is Adrie van der Poel, a former elite cyclocross world champion and classics winner.<\/p>\n

And his grandfather, on his mother\u2019s side, was Raymond Poulidor, who won the Vuelta, among 73 wins in an 18-year career. He was 2nd at the Tour de France three times \u2013 1964, 1965 and 1974.<\/p>\n

On a podcast with Whoop, Van der Poel said his resting heart averaged at 34bpm and the lowest he ever recorded was 31bpm. He said his heart rate variability (HRV) score was over 200, compared to the average male on Whoop of 65.<\/p>\n

The HRV is the measure of the millisecond-level variation between consecutive heartbeats and is a sign of a person\u2019s ability to recover, and their fitness levels. Whoop terms it a \u201creadiness indicator\u201d, or how well recovered and physically trained a person is for stressful, difficult exercise.<\/p>\n

\"\"Van der Poel winning Tour of Flanders in 2020, the first of the three victories in the race that he has collected so far<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really high in HRV,\u201d the Dutch rider told the podcast. \u201cI think it\u2019s a bit genetical, but fitness is important also. For sure, it\u2019s something that makes me stronger and better recovered.\u201d
He added his HRV and average heart rate are the two most important pieces of data he collects and the ones he watches most closely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe average is 38. The lowest I have on Whoop recorded is 34. So, it\u2019s really low,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s something a lot of endurance athletes have, the heart is really well trained. In general, cyclists are quite low on the heart rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added while some pro athletes very closely guard their data, he was more relaxed about it as he believed sharing his data did not offer his rivals any advantage over him.<\/p>\n

Old school rules still apply<\/p>\n

While he discussed the importance of informing his training and recovery with the kind of tech the cyclists of his father\u2019s and grandfather\u2019s generations couldn\u2019t comprehend, Van der Poel said the rules to racing have, in many ways, not changed. And one of those was the important of positioning in a group at key moments in classics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go from big roads to smaller climbs, and you have to be in the top twenty riders. Because, if there\u2019s a move and you\u2019re too far back, it\u2019s impossible to respond,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with the best numbers, it\u2019s impossible to be in the leading group if you don\u2019t know how to position yourself. You need numbers, but you can also win races by riding smarter or doing the right things at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said things like positioning and tactics were much more important in the classics than in Grand Tours, where the strongest riders normally won.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the climbs, the power numbers speak for themselves. Most of the time the strongest wins,\u201d he explained of the Grand Tours. \u201cIn the classics you have so many different race situations, so many tactics. That\u2019s what makes it exciting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 180 of us and everyone knows exactly where to be. So it\u2019s always a great battle to stay at the front. You need a good team, good teammates. And you need experience to know how to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mathieu van der Poel on his way to his eighth senior gold medal at the cyclocross Worlds two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-426587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}