Tadej Pogacar comes to establish his domination in the garden of Mathieu van der Poel, Kopecky Reine in his kingdom – Liberation

The explanation at the top of the Mountains of Flanders took place this Sunday, April 6. But when she seemed promised to the two best cycling runners of the time, Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar, she reserved a fifty -kilometer struggle between the stars of the peloton. The indecision will have weighed until the third and last ascent of Old Quaremont, a surprise as the last classics have been privatized in recent years by the Pogacar- « MVDP » duo. And there, almost gentle, it was the Slovenian Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) who mate the champions of the cobblestones by flying solo, without Van der Poel being able to hang his wheel.

The duo had previously chained upcuts and hooks against the competition for around forty kilometers. Their opponents did not let go, by succeeding in hanging the wheels in the paved climbs or by blocking the gaps at the price of monstrous efforts. About forty kilometers from the finish, there was only the gratin of the committed commitments at the top of the race: Pogacar and Van der Poel, of course, but also their rivals of the Lidl-Trek (Mads Pedersen and Jasper Suyven), the Visma Lease A Bike (Matteo Jorgenson, Wout Van Aert, Tiesj Benoot) or FDJ (Stefan Küng). Ten terminals further, the two ogres were alone at the front, before being hung again. It is ultimately the third and last ascent of Old Quaremont that will seal the case.

Did the attempt to anticipate several outsiders (Benoot, Küng, Ganna) halfway, only passed cold sweats in the pugacar necks and her teammates from the Emirates UAE training? Not sure, as the triple winner of the Tour de France seems capable of shining on all terrains. At the little game of his rivalry with « MVDP », he gleaned his eighth « monument » this Sunday, the name designating the biggest races of a day. Its second Tour des Flandres, the Dutch garden, which will still have to wait to become the only successful record holder in the Belgian classic. As for Pogacar, he took a date at a week from Paris-Roubaix, on which he decided to commit for the first time.

Almost two hours later, among women, it was adorned with the same rainbow jersey as Pogacar that the Belgian Lotte Kopecky came to settle her competitors in Oudenaarde, pocketing her third « round ». At the exit of the Paterberg, the last Mont Pavé of the race, there are four of them to be wins: Kopecky, the Polish Katarzyna Niewiadoma, the German Liane Lippert and the Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. An equipped with various profiles: a specialist in the classics, the winner of the last Tour de France, a Pluante, and a former mountain bike, Olympic champion last summer at the Olympic Games in Paris 2024. After a part of a liar poker in the last kilometer, Lotte Kopecky launches in the lead and will never be reviewed. For the year of his comeback on road, Ferrand-Prévot ends in second position, confirming his excellent start to the season.

Update at 5.55 p.m. With the result of the women’s race