After all the talk about Visma-Lease a Bike’s ‘super team’ heading into the Classics, it was Lidl-Trek that were the best outfit at E3 Saxo Classic, owning pole position heading into the crucial Taaienberg and landing four riders in the top 11 finishers.
They couldn’t quite overcome the power of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) as the Dutchman surged away on the Paterberg to take victory solo. But Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) took a brilliant second ahead of Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) after bridging to his compatriot in the final five kilometres and outsprinting him to the line in Harelbeke.
A result not to be sniffed at with the World Champion “above everyone else” according to Stuyven and simply “on another level” in the words of sports director Grégory Rast as he spoke to Het Nieuwsblad and Cyclingnews after the finish.
“I’m not disappointed here. Mathieu was racing on another level. This is the reality, and it was never our race,” said Rast.
“If you look at the past, we were never performing here super well, at least for a long time, we are really, really happy with the second place of Jasper [Styuven].”
Stuyven also said that he was pleased with what he felt was a strong performance. “Of course, I’m very happy. I think it’s a very nice result. I think, as a team, we rode a super strong race. We were there, we were present. Of course, you have Mathieu who was above everyone else today but finishing second on the podium is very satisfying.”
This was the first time Lidl-Trek had been in the top 10 at E3 since 2018, when it was Stuyven again who was their top performer. Today, his tactics were pretty spot-on, getting away from the faltering five-man group, which contained Van Aert’s teammate Matteo Jorgenson, to ensure he could catch Van Aert and overhaul him in time.
It was just another example of the 31-year-old Belgian’s form returning to the top level after he worked brilliantly for Mads Pedersen at Milan-San Remo and finished in the top 10 of both races at Opening Weekend.
“It’s not only his shape, but his morale is on top. He showed he was there in Milan-San Remo and OK, he was not there in Opening Weekend – he missed the big split and after he had a bad moment but this can happen, he’s not a robot,” Rast said.
“We believe in him and today I’m really happy for him, even for a…
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