Axel Merckx has warned the sport’s youngest stars not to burn out too early, especially the ones combining road and cyclocross together.
The team principal of Hagens Berman Axeon mainly focused on Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), who are dominating road and field at the moment.
Merckx, son of the legendary cyclist Eddy, said that these younger riders need to learn from star rider in the women’s peloton Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv), after she dominated for years but then lost form and missed most of the 2015 season with illness.
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Speaking in his column in La Dernière Heure, Merckx said that Vos “has done and won everything for years: the road, time trial, track, cyclocross. But one day her body said stop.
Merckx added: “(She) fell ill and never returned to her old level, except for a few flashes… I hope that Wout and Mathieu will think about this with their trainers and entourage.”
Both Van der Poel and Van Aert finished their road seasons after their two-up battle in the Tour of Flanders which was won by Van der Poel by half a wheel.
But now they are launching into the cyclocross season with Van Aert returning to a full calendar after a year of limited cross races, following a very nasty crash in the 2019 Tour de France.
Merckx continued: “It seems very soon that Wout van Aert is already back in the field. His road season had only just ended,
“He has also been out for a while with an injury, the energy it took to get back from that should not be underestimated.
“In the meantime, he hasn’t had a real break in three years. Just like Van der Poel, I am a bit worried about that.”
In news related to his team, Hagens Berman Axeon, Merckx said that he and his team “still needed €300,000 for the budget for 2021 and have now more or less found half. As a result, we will be able to run a normal season with a nice program in Europe,”
The team has developed some of the peloton’s top talent with Giro d’Italia 2020 winner, Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), João Almeida (Deceuninck – Quick-Step), Jasper Philipsen (soon to be Alpecin-Fenix) and Rubén Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling) being just three of the team’s alumni.
