Axel Merckx has warned that today's young cycling stars – especially those who ride cyclocross and road – will suffer burnout unless they take enough time to rest and also to recover after injury.
Merckx, in a column in La Dernière Heure, said young riders must be careful and cited the example of Marianne Vos, who had been forced to a halt after years of heavy training and racing load.
While Merckx only mentioned the names of Vos, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, his comments were more general. They were also timely as the 2020 season saw young riders, many with very busy schedules, really breaking through at the top of the sport.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won the Tour de France aged just 21 years and Remco Evenepoel, still aged just 20 years, won four major stage races before suffering a season-ending crash at Il Lombardia in August.
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Evenepoel has been back training for weeks and has regularly updated fans about his recovery in recent months.
Other riders, most notably Tom Pidcock, have also taken
on busy schedules that go close to spanning the full 12 months of each year.
Merckx’s warning to young riders, that they will pay later if they do too much now, carries real weight as he is seen as one of the best developers of young talent through his Hagens Berman Axeon team.
Merckx said riders needed to rest and any young rider who
was badly injured should not underestimate the demands on their bodies from
those crashes and also connected with their recovery and return to racing.
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“They have to be careful that they don’t end up like Marianne Vos,” he said of the Dutch star who remains one of the top athletes in the sport but suffered burn out and missed the vast majority of the 2015 season.
“She has done and won everything for years: the road,
time trial, track, cyclocross. But one day her body said stop.
“(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.”
He noted Van Aert – one of the superstars of 2020 – was already
back riding the cyclocross season after a difficult and demanding road
campaign.
“It seems very soon that Wout van Aert is already back in
the field. His road season had only just ended,” said Merckx.
“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 Mathieu van der Poel, I am a bit worried about that. ”
In his column Merckx also said he had found the money –
just about – to keep his Hagens Berman Axeon team on the road next year after a
shortage of finances had threatened it with closure despite its success.
“I and my team still needed €300,000 for my 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,” he confirmed.
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