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Three favourites stand above all others ahead of the Tour of Flanders. Tadej Pogačar, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel looked several rungs ahead of the rest at last week’s E3 Saxo Classic, the quintessential Ronde dress rehearsal, and it will class as a major surprise if the spoils don’t fall to one of that trio in Oudenaarde on Sunday afternoon.
The Tour of Flanders, however, is a race apart and, as last year’s tumultuous finale showed, one that is always capable of throwing up late twists. There are three outstanding contenders – and one dominant team in Jumbo-Visma – but there are plenty of riders who will line up with ambition in Bruges on Sunday morning.
Indeed, the role of outsider may well suit riders like Matej Mohorič and Stefan Küng. It might even be to the liking of Julian Alaphilippe, who leads a Soudal-QuickStep team that has been suffering something of existential crisis through this Classic campaign. For better or for worse, the first Sunday in April tends to overshadow everything that comes before it.
Ahead of the big day, Cyclingnews looks at the three favourites for the Tour of Flanders and the men most likely to challenge them.
Favourites
Wout van Aert is the leading light for both Jumbo-Visma and the whole of Belgium at the Tour of Flanders. He won E3, gave Gent-Wevelgem to his teammate, and now looks very much like the rider to beat on Sunday.
There’s a particular kind of expectation surrounding Van Aert, who seems perfectly poised on that fine line between home hope and home pressure. At 28, it’s considered time he started building his Monuments tally, with ‘only’ Milan-San Remo to his name so far, and two Flanders titles already to the name of his arch-rival, Van der Poel. Van Aert done very little wrong recently, but one more missed opportunity and it will start to become an itch ahead of his sixth appearance next spring.
The only obstacle last year was COVID-19 and, despite six hours in the cold and rain at Gent-Wevelgem, he appears to have avoided illness and comes into the race with a similar level of form. It might not be quite the same, however. Van Aert beat Van der Poel and Pogačar to win E3 but one lingering concern will be the fact he was temporarily distanced by the Slovenian’s onslaught on the Oude Kwaremont. Van Aert retaliated by blowing the doors off Gent-Wevelgem, but neither of…
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