Mathieu van der Poel wasn’t exactly overselling the significance of Gent-Wevelgem when he rolled into the mixed zone in the Grote Markt in Ypres on Sunday morning. “It’s not super important,” the man of the moment conceded, mindful that the success or failure of his Spring campaign is tallied purely in Monument wins.
Still, Van der Poel rarely, if ever, turns up at a race simply to ride around, and after cruising to E3 Saxo Classic victory on Friday, he was the overwhelming favourite to annex another Classic here. “I mean, I will not win every race there is on the calendar,” Van der Poel protested before he made his way to the start line.
So it proved, though Van der Poel, inevitably, was in the mix right up until the final metres of another breathless edition of Gent-Wevelgem. He had to yield to Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) in the two-up sprint on Vanackerestraat, but only after his aggression on the first ascent of the Kemmelberg and the Plugstreets had changed the entire tenor of the race.
The flat finale to Gent-Wevelgem traditionally gives the sprinters a fighting chance of victory, and the key question before the race was whether Van der Poel would opt to race on behalf of his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen. In his first outing of 2024, after all, Van der Poel stitched Milan-San Remo back together after the Poggio to help Philipsen to victory.
“There’s a possibility that Jasper will still be there after the last time up the Kemmel, and in that case we just have to communicate again like we did in San Remo,” Van der Poel said at the start. “But I think a lot is going to happen before then.”
Prescient words. The grim pre-race forecast of hailstones and driving wind didn’t quite materialise, but on the exposed roads near De Moeren, even the gentlest breeze can have the impact of a tornado. When the peloton split with 150km still to race, Van der Poel was inevitably one of the men driving the front group.
The Dutchman continued in the same vein on the first haul up the Kemmelberg, where only seven riders remained in front after his searing acceleration, and he kicked once again on the dirt roads of the Plugstreets. After the second climb of the Kemmel, only Pedersen and Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) remained in his company.
On the last time up the climb, however, it was Pedersen who laid down the terms of engagement. His…
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