Pogačar Wins Thrilling Tour of Flanders with Late Solo Burst

The 109th edition of the race had more thrills and ups and downs than a roller coaster. The drama actually began with about 130km left to race in the 268.9km course, when defending champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who was trying to become the first rider to win the race four times, was involved in a mass crash on a stretch of smooth, flat road. He fell about 50 seconds behind the peloton, which was racing up the Eikenberg (1.2km @ 5.2%, with ramps up to 10%). It took the Dutchman only 10km to rejoin the bunch, thanks to a big support ride by teammate Eddy Planckaert.

With 110km to go, Groupama-FDJ’s Swiss speedster Stefan Küng attacked and was joined by Tiesj Benoot (Visma– Lease a Bike), Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana) and Vito Braet (Intermarché-Wanty). They were racing after an eight-rider breakaway that included Connor Swift (INEOS Grenadiers) and Marco Haller (Tudor) and were soon pursued by another strong four-rider group of Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers), Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek) and Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck). That amounted to a total of 16 riders spread out over the course ahead of a peloton that was just gathering speed for the final 80km.

These separate groups joined up and broke up often over the next 30km, as the favorites for the victory, Pogačar, van der Poel, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Wout van Aert (Visma–Lease a Bike) and their respective teams prepared for the final showdown. The beginning of the endgame kicked off, as expected, when the Slovenian accelerated on the cobbled slopes of the Oude Kwaremont (2.2km @ 4.6%, with ramps up to 11.6%), which the riders were climbing for the second of three ascents. He was followed by van Aert and his Visma teammate Matteo Jorgenson, with van der Poel and Pedersen caught out of position. But they recovered and soon a group of five raced up the iconic climb.

Pogačar and van der Poel eventually opened a gap over the others, but they came together again on the other side of the mountain, and were eventually joined by what remained of the peloton.

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This scenario – Pogačar accelerating and pursued by his three main rivals; van Aert and Pedersen dropped on the tough climbs, but rejoining the others eventually – was repeated several times, with van Aert benefiting from the presence of both Benoot and Jorgenson and Pedersen receiving crucial help from teammate Jasper Stuyven. But on the final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont, with 18km left to ride, Pogačar attacked for the umpteenth time and no one could follow. And spectators were treated to the unexpected sight of van Aert pulling van der Poel up the climb as they went in futile pursuit of the eventual winner.

There was a point, with about 12km left to ride, with the climbing done, when van Aert, van der Poel and Pedersen trailed Pogačar by only 24 seconds and might have caught him if they had managed a coordinated chase. But they had nothing left in their legs. Eventually, Pedersen won the sprint to the line, ahead of van der Poel and van Aert, the three finishing 1:01 behind the delighted winner.

“The goal was to win, but in the end, it is hard to realize it,” Pogačar said after the race. “We did it and I cannot be more proud of the team and how we raced today, even though we had some bad luck. In the end, all was good. I’m just so happy to win this race in this [world championship] jersey.”

There were crashes all along the route, with UAE teammates Jhonatan Narváez, Tim Wellens and Florian Vermeersch hitting the deck. “The plan was to go from [the Oude Kwaremont]. We followed the plan even though we had some crashes with teammates,” Pogačar explained. “Florian somehow was chasing back all the race more or less, and made it just in time to lead out on the Kwaremont. Chapeau to him.”

As for van der Poel, who was frustrated in his attempt to make history, he was frank and gracious in defeat. He said he never really felt that he could win the race, adding: “I was already on the limit from quite far. With the crash, of course, it was not ideal, but I think we put up a good fight with the team, and I did everything I could. I’m happy with the podium. It’s never good to be in a crash, but I think the damage was still quite OK.”

As for van Aert, he could be described as a happy loser, if such a creature exists in sports. Coming off a disastrous second place in Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen and under renewed attack by his many Belgian critics, he rode a smart and strong race, appearing to grow stronger as the race progressed and even managing to lead his old rival van der Poel up the final climb. He isn’t quite the van Aert of old, but he appears to be getting close.

“I’m happy with today’s race,” he said afterwards. “It’s been a really tough race of course and it was just really cool to battle for the podium. I was just stuck there and I have no regrets. I really tried it and Tadej [Pogačar] was just stronger, and the other two in front of me in the sprint were also stronger too. A fourth place [behind] these three riders is no disgrace; it was my place today too. I am especially happy that the hard work paid off and that I never lost courage.”

Next Sunday comes another fearsome Monument, Paris-Roubaix, where the climbs are easier but the cobbles are meaner. As Pogačar admitted, the Tour of Flanders suits him better than Paris-Roubaix because the French race reduces his climbing advantage over the others. Which could mean that there will be another fearsome battle, perhaps one that will last all the way to the finish line. We can’t wait.