The most obvious takeaway from Gent-Wevelgem is that Mathieu van der Poel is human. He was impressive again on Sunday, but in the end, he lost out to Mads Pedersen. That’s a lesson for anybody who thought Mathieu was going to be unbeatable this Spring after his performance at E3 Saxo Classic. He’s not unbeatable. In cycling, and especially in the Classics, nobody is unbeatable.
I don’t think Van der Poel made any big mistakes by going away in that group so far from the finish. It was just that this was more of an endurance race than an attacking race. At E3, there was more of a stop-start rhythm, and he could hurt his rivals with big accelerations in places like the Taaienberg and Paterberg. Gent-Wevelgem was a hard race too, but very different in style. The pace was more regular, but it was a long, long finale. By the end, everybody was running out of fuel, and Pedersen just had a little bit more left.
The second talking point is also pretty clear. Lidl-Trek did a really nice race, riding as a real team, just like they already did at E3 Saxo Classic and everywhere else so far this Spring. Maybe they don’t have an individual on the same level as Van der Poel or Wout van Aert, but they are compensating for that with their collective strength, and they are racing with a lot of unity as well.
But even though Lidl-Trek’s approach paid off in the end on Sunday, we actually didn’t see their plan work to perfection, because Jasper Stuyven’s puncture took him out of contention. At that moment, coming through the Plugstreets, Lidl-Trek had three riders in the front group of seven. It was a great scenario for them, and I’m curious to think what would have happened if Jasper hadn’t punctured at that moment.
Because of this, I think Lidl-Trek can still ride even better than they did at Gent-Wevelgem. They sent Jonathan Milan up the road to force Van der Poel to chase on Sunday, which was a good move, but they could have done even more interesting things if Stuyven had still been up there. He showed how strong he is right now with his second place in Harelbeke, after all.
In any case, Pedersen was really impressive in the final hour of the race, especially on the last time up the Kemmelberg, where he rode on the front to put pressure on Van der Poel. I also liked how he managed the final sprint. Mads likes to go in a big gear, so when they came to the finish at low speed, I wondered if Mathieu would have something left to accelerate past him. But…
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