{"id":60412,"date":"2025-08-12T00:48:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T00:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/60412\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T00:48:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T00:48:06","slug":"im-still-pushing-good-wattages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/60412\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m still pushing good wattages\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bauke Mollema<\/a> is eyeing the final races of his 2025 season,
\nwith the World Championships and Il Lombardia on his calendar. The 38-year-old
\nDutch rider from Lidl-Trek<\/a> has fond memories of Il Lombardia, having won it in
\n2019, alongside stage victories at the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. His
\nyear began promisingly with a thirteenth-place finish at the Tour Down Under,
\nbut his form dipped in the summer, leading to his absence from the Giro
\nd\u2019Italia where he had hoped to chase another stage win and complete his set of
\ngrand tour stage wins. The veteran admits it hasn\u2019t been the season he wanted.<\/p>\n

On the podcast \u201cDe Pacer,\u201d Mollema said, “I’m still
\npushing good wattages, because I set a 20-minute record this year. Although I’m
\nnot at the same levels as I was at the beginning of my career, because back
\nthen I didn’t use a power meter.”<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cBesides a twenty-minute record, I also set a
\nten-minute record this year, and even a thirty-second record. That last record
\nwas just before the Tour Down Under. But at those times, you’re fresh. I can’t
\ndo that anymore at the end of a Grand Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mollema pointed out that the depth of talent in modern
\ncycling makes small differences decisive. The level the top riders head reached
\nin recent years is possibly the highest ever, making the battle for stage
\nvictories even more difficult. “If I had been at my level of last year, or
\neven this year, say, ten years ago, I would have achieved much better results.
\nThe level is so high across the board. It’s really all about those last few
\npercent, because everyone can ride so fast.”<\/p>\n

Nutrition was another area where Mollema once saw a
\ncompetitive edge, and he believes it is an area that he excelled in. “I
\nwas already eating a lot at the beginning of my career. I was known for that in
\nthe team. I ate gels all day long and a lot of pasta after the race. I did that
\nunconsciously, because I was hungry and I could afford it. I didn’t gain weight
\neasily.”<\/p>\n

He continued, “In hindsight, that might have been my
\ngreatest strength. Many boys often had an energy deficit, which caused them to
\nfall through the cracks. When the rest started eating too, I lost that
\nadvantage. Although I did, of course, pay more attention to it, but there was
\nmore to be gained for others.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bauke Mollema is eyeing the final races of his 2025 season, with the World Championships and Il Lombardia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-60412","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\/60412","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=60412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}