Friday’s E3 Saxo Classic showed that we certainly weren’t wrong to expect a battle between Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert this Spring. Their duel was the main story of the race, and Mathieu came out on top again in the end, which will only add to the pressure on Wout before the Tour of Flanders.
Van Aert’s crash on the Paterberg totally changed the race, of course, and it’s understandable that it was the focus of a lot of analysis afterwards. With his cyclocross skill, he felt he could switch easily between the smooth gutter and the cobbles, but he ended up falling. I don’t know if that was a mistake or just simple bad luck for Van Aert, but it was very costly.
It’s interesting because it also highlighted a key difference for me between the Tour of Flanders and the other races in this part of the world. There are a lot more barriers on the route of the Ronde, and that means there’s much more clarity about where you can ride and where you can’t ride. A lot of the time, including on the Paterberg, it’s not possible to ride in the gutter because of the barriers. The route is more ‘stable,’ and I’m in favour of that.
I was standing on the Tiegemberg in the finale, so I got a good close-up view of Van der Poel and Van Aert as they rode up the last climb of the day. I could see the fatigue weighing heavily on Van Aert’s face at that point, and it’s hard to say if that was because of the effort he had to make after the crash or if it was because he wasn’t at his best after his recent altitude camp.
In either case, I think it’s clear that there’s huge pressure on Wout right now in this rivalry with Van der Poel. He hasn’t won the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix yet, and there’s all this expectation on him in Belgium and that’s not easy to manage.
It’s not just a question of whether Van der Poel is stronger or not. There’s also a mental aspect that we can’t overlook. When your confidence is high, when you’re in your ‘flow,’ your confidence is higher, and these races feel easier. Legs and condition are one thing, but mental fatigue is a big factor in these races too. We can forget sometimes what a big difference the mental aspect can make here.
From that point of view, winning in Harelbeke was a big message from Van der Poel to his rivals for the rest of the Spring, because he didn’t just demonstrate his…
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