{"id":198342,"date":"2025-04-07T09:42:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T09:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=198342"},"modified":"2025-04-07T09:42:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T09:42:38","slug":"pogacar-wins-thrilling-tour-of-flanders-with-late-solo-burst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/04\/07\/pogacar-wins-thrilling-tour-of-flanders-with-late-solo-burst\/","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar Wins Thrilling Tour of Flanders with Late Solo Burst"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Poga\u010dar won an electrifying Tour of Flanders on Sunday with a typical display of power and speed that no one was able to resist. In winning the race for the second time, the UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG leader joined legend Eddy Merckx as the only multiple winner of both the Tour de France and De Ronde and becomes the seventh male rider to win the Tour of Flanders in the jersey of the reigning road race world champion. It was also the eighth Monument victory of his already illustrious career<\/strong><\/p>\n

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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<\/a> (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.<\/p>\n

With 110km to go, Groupama-FDJ\u2019s Swiss speedster Stefan K\u00fcng attacked and was joined by Tiesj Benoot (Visma\u2013 Lease a Bike), Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana) and Vito Braet (Intermarch\u00e9-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.<\/p>\n

These separate groups joined up and broke up often over the next 30km, as the favorites for the victory, Poga\u010dar, van der Poel, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Wout van Aert (Visma\u2013Lease 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.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar 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.<\/p>\n

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Zobrazit p\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek na Instagramu<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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P\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek sd\u00edlen\u00fd Ronde van Vlaanderen (@rondevanvlaanderen)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n