On Belgian television, Renaat Schotte asked Wout van Aert if the podium at the E3 Saxo Classic was the most beautiful in the history of the race. His response was class: “As long as I’m in the middle, yes.” I can remember some beautiful podiums in Harelbeke myself… but it has to be said, this one was special.
In Wout Van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, and Tadej Pogačar, we have three amazing riders, all in different ways, and they are bringing so much value to the Classics.
My conclusion is that E3 was interesting to a certain point, then it became boring, then it became interesting again, then boring, and then it was a nice sprint. Since it was so intense in the middle part, there were no big fireworks at the end, but it was still quite special to see three riders like that up there on that level.
Let’s start at the end. The key to the sprint was that they didn’t slow down too much. Tadej took them in at quite a high pace – there was a tailwind, too – and then opened the sprint with more than 200 metres to go. That kind of sprint will always suit Wout van Aert.
Mathieu cannot go with the biggest gears. Where he’s at his best is when it starts from a lower speed, with low gears, and then he accelerates like hell. No one can match his change of pace from a low speed. We saw this at the Cyclocross World Championships recently and, as I wrote about 12 months ago, we saw it at the last Tour of Flanders.
Here, it looked like the sprint opened at too high a speed, and then he ran out of room for acceleration. He couldn’t make the difference anymore. Wout, on the other hand, is more of a pure sprinter, and when he has a certain speed he can maintain it for longer.
What was also interesting to me was that Van der Poel gave up in the sprint. OK, you cannot call it giving up, but he had to sit up, shake his head, and watch Van Aert celebrate. Let me tell you, these little things can make a big difference psychologically.
Maybe Mathieu was too confident. He opened the race early and made another nice attack on the Stationberg, where no one usually goes. He showed balls once again. But after that the only one attacking was Tadej, so maybe he was too sure he’d win in a sprint.
I think Van Aert will have taken a lot of confidence from this. Let’s not forget, his direct record against Van der Poel has not been good in recent years, especially in sprints. There was the sprint he lost in Flanders in 2020, then the same thing happened at Cyclocross Worlds…
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