A race made to order
In a way, this race was tailor-made for the world champion because no one in the world could have followed him when he made his move with about 400 metres left to climb – and no one did. The only rider thought capable of staying on his wheel on the last of three climbs of the Mur was Remco Evenepoel. But, though his Soudal Quick-Step team worked hard to soften the legs of his rivals through much of the 205.1 km race from Ciney to Huy, the Belgian double Olympic champion faltered on the climb, ultimately finishing ninth, 16 seconds adrift.
The impressive 23-year-old French rider Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa–B&B Hotels) was the best of the rest, crossing the line 10 seconds behind, his second runner-up finish in a row in the race. That 10-second margin may not sound like much, but it was the biggest winning gap in the race since 2003. Q36.5’s Tom Pidcock made another impressive showing and came in third, at 12 seconds. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), who outsprinted both Pogačar and Evenepoel in the Amstel Gold Race, crashed on a curve on a road surface made slick by almost constant rain and abandoned. Fortunately, the rain stopped for the final 35 km of the race.
It was Ben Healey (EF Education–EasyPost) who kicked off the decisive action by taking off from the lead group with about 500 metres left to ride. Pogačar rode with him for a while and then hit the pedals hard and was gone, with no one able to come within shouting distance. Though the victory appeared easy, it was a tired-looking Pogačar who crossed the finish line without his usual triumphant smile. No wonder, for that was his sixth Classics race since March 8 and his fourth in 17 days.
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“A great feeling”
Still, he was quite happy with the win, his second in the race. “Yeah, it’s a really great feeling to win again here on this tough final,” he said after the race. “Beautiful climb, but as a cyclist, you don’t like it so much. And today, it was also that the weather was not the best. It was a really tough race, so to pull it off with a win means a lot.”
When Healy made his move, “I said ‘Okay, he looks fast’,” he said. “So I accelerated, and when I looked over my shoulder, no one was there. But really, that’s the hardest kilometre in cycling.”
He went on, as usual, to praise his team, saying: “We raced really well together as a team today. We stuck to the plan, we rode perfectly. It was a hard race, but everyone was strong out there.” And he said that he was looking forward to Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège. “We can do something great again on Sunday,” he said.
Under the weather
Another Lidl-Trek rider who had been fancied in the race, 22-year-old Thibau Nys, was near the front when the endgame began, but he never looked like winning. He told Het Laatste Nieuws after the race that the cold and rainy weather had slowed him down. “I suffered because of the cold,” Nys said. “I was struggling all day with my clothes and the rain. Sometimes I was too hot, sometimes too cold. And that really took its toll on my legs. Uphill, I always managed, but on the descents, I was shivering like crazy.”
Evenepoel also talked to Het Laatste Nieuws after the race and indirectly also blamed the weather. “I took off my raincoat too early,” he said. “That made me cold in the final, and I lost energy. I can only blame myself for that. When Tadej went, my legs locked up. I can only blame that on the cold because before that, I felt super good.”
However, he said he was feeling strong throughout the race. “The feeling was good and the team was good,” he said. “That is only motivating for Sunday.” That is the day of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a race that Evenepoel has won twice. So we can look forward to another exciting showdown between the two superstars and hope that the spring Classics season will go out with fireworks.
