There were wild crashes, a Canadian in the day’s breakaway, and a classic meeting of the Three Tenors–Wout Van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar–all combining to fashion an engrossing second Monument of the season, the 107th Ronde van Vlaanderen, the Tour of Flanders. Pogačar left everyone behind on the third passage of the Oude Kwaremont to add Flanders to his two Il Lombardia and one Liege-Bastogne-Liege Monument titles. He’s only the third rider to ever win a Tour de France and a Ronde after Louison Bobet and Eddy Merckx.
Introduction
The Big Three first took swings at each other this season in Milan-San Remo, where van der Poel was crowned champion, Van Aert made the podium and Pogačar came fourth. In the E3 Saxo Classic, the order on the podium was Belgian, Dutchman and Slovenian. So far, Van Aert’s French teammate Christophe Laporte has bossed Flanders Week, taking Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen.
The Canadian contingent: Guillaume Boivin was ninth in Dwars door Vlaanderen. His teammate Hugo Houle was on the start line, as was Q36.5’s Nick Zukowsky.
Starting in Brugge instead of Antwerp, the 2023 edition was 273.4 kilometres, the longest Ronde for 25 years. There were six sections of cobbles and 19 climbs, the final six packed into 30 km. But don’t discount the climbs before the final six. Last season things began to simmer on the Berendries. Valkenberg, Berg Ten Houte and the Kanarieberg are also good places to attack. By the final two climbs, Oude Kwaremont (2 km of 4.4 percent) and Paterberg (400 metres of 8.8 percent), the selection will have been made and this elite group will dig at each other. Coming off the Paterberg, it’s 13.3 km to the finish line in Oudenaarde.
𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝?
The 107th edition of #RVV23 is about to start!
19 hills – including the Taaienberg, Koppenberg, Paterberg and Oude Kwaremont – and 6 cobblestone stretches are on the menu of the longest edition (273.5km) in the last 25 years. pic.twitter.com/a5nUr5PybI
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) April 2, 2023
Houle was part of an octet of breakaways that went clear early (so was Daan Hoole). On the way to the first of three passages of the Oude Kwaremont, there was a huge crash caused by a Bahrain-Victorious rider. Tim Wellens and Peter Sagan were forced to abandon and the Polish rider that caused the carnage, Filip Maciejuk, was disqualified.
On…
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