Mathieu van der Poel knew exactly what was coming on the last time up the Oude Kwaremont at the Tour of Flanders, but that forewarning was of little help here. By now, Tadej Pogačar’s attacks are rarely surprising, but they are almost always overwhelming.
So it proved here. Van der Poel had somehow resisted Pogačar’s onslaught on the same climb en route to victory a year ago, and he did it again last week at the E3 Saxo Classic, but at the third time of asking, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider finally had to yield.
Pogačar had already signalled his intent by pressing clear on the penultimate ascent of the Kwaremont with 55km to go, but Van der Poel was part of an elite group that caught back up when the Slovenian relented ahead of the Koppenberg. The next time around, however, Pogačar repeated the dose. Van der Poel came closer to responding than anyone else, but there was nothing to be done.
“What he did today is really special. I already knew from last year and E3 Prijs that he’s strong on the Kwaremont, and he showed that again today,” said Van der Poel, who was still – by some distance – the best of the rest in the finale of the fastest Ronde in history, run off at an average of 44.083 kph.
Van der Poel would reach Oudenaarde in second place, 16 seconds down on Pogačar but almost a minute clear of the chasers, after a fine individual effort over the Kwaremont and Paterberg. The Dutchman has won the Tour of Flanders twice before, in 2020 and 2022, but there is a strong argument that this was his finest athletic display yet at this race. It was simply his misfortune to run into a Pogačar with his settings locked on scorched-earth mode.
“It’s never good to finish second but it’s a bit easier here because he was the strongest, he deserved the win,” said Van der Poel, who was caught out when the bunch split in two during a breathless opening hour of racing. The ensuing 20km chase saw Van der Poel lose a number of teammates long before the finale, even if he downplayed its significance when he arrived in the mixed zone afterwards.
“This is my fifth Ronde, I think, and I never rode one like that, it was à bloc from the start. At the start, I was caught behind the split, and I had some teammates with me who suffered to bring me back up to the peloton. But for me, it was fine, so I don’t think I lost my race there. It’s just that Tadej was really strong today.”
Van der Poel set out from Bruges as joint favourite alongside Pogačar…
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