Cycling doesn’t award a ‘man of the match’ like football, but if it did, there’s no doubt that Oier Lazkano would have taken it after his performance at Dwars door Vlaanderen. While the name on everyone’s lips ahead of the race was Jumbo-Visma, and most people expected the win to be taken by a rider in yellow and black, few would have predicted Movistar’s Basque rouleur to finish in second behind Christophe Laporte in Waregem today.
It’s not just because 23-year-old Lazkano is a rider who hasn’t had many results in the Flandrian one-day races before (the biggest result of his career ahead of today was a win in stage two of the Ethias-Tour de Wallonie last year), but it’s also because of the brave, rollercoaster journey he went on to secure that podium position.
The Movistar rider was in the breakaway of the day with six other riders, which formed with still over 100km of the race remaining. Usually, these breaks are for riders who want to take a chance, they know that the big favourites will remain in the peloton until the race begins to reach its explosive finale, but being in the early move gives those who might not be able to follow punchy attacks a slim chance of making it to the line.
Lazkano looked strong throughout the race as other riders slowly dropped out of the breakaway. He was powering over the cobbles, finessing the treacherous Belgian roads with smooth bunnyhops over potholes and fighting over the summit of every steep climb. Inside the final 30km of the race, the breakaway had been whittled down steadily by the brutal Flemish roads, so that only Lazkano and Alexander Kristoff remained. Behind them, the likes of Jumbo-Visma were closing in fast, breathing down the necks of the two unlikely escapees.
Despite the coherent chase and attacking group behind, Kristoff and Lazkano continued to share turns with gritted teeth and grimacing pain faces. Through fight and determination, the duo held off the chasing group for longer than anyone would have anticipated, keeping the gap at a tantalising 20 seconds as the distance ticked down. But this was a bike race, not a fairytale, and the group of pre-race favourites eventually closed in on Kristoff and Lazkano with six kilometres remaining, Lazkano’s head bobbing from side to side, his shoulders slumped.
The commentators lauded the efforts of the duo with sympathetic praise about the longevity of their time in front. It seemed like their day was over, Lazkano…