Tadej Pogacar triumphs in Flanders on « Great Show »

Tadej Pogacar (Slo/Emirates) looked around again briefly, then he tore his hands up before the finish line and cheered another magnificent success. The Slovenian bike star celebrated his second triumph on the tour of the Flanders after an impressive solo show. The world champion clearly prevailed on the Belgian cycling day in the next exciting duel with Mathieu van der Poel (NL/Alpecin) and prevented the Dutch prevented with his fourth success for the sole record winner.

For Pogacar it was the eighth victory in one of the five cycling monuments. In the 109th edition of the Flanders Tour, the Tour-de-France and Giro winner prevailed after 269 kilometers between Bruges and Oudenaarde with 1,01  » lead over the Danish ex-world champion Mads Pedersen (Lidl). Van der Poel finished third.

« I couldn’t be proud of the team, as we drove. I am so happy to win in this jersey. The goal was the victory, but in the end it is difficult to realize it all, » said Pogacar and his team boss Mauro Gianetti raved: « It was incredible. Everyone was very fantastic. the cycling. « 

Bob Jungels and Arthur Kluckers side by side

19 kilometers before the finish, Pogacar set the crucial attack when the Oude Kwaremont went up for the third time. At the top he had twelve seconds ahead of the pursuers – that was enough. With this, Pogacar also returned for the spring classic Milan-Sanremo when he was in the duel with Van der Poel and finished third.

The great exchange of blows between the Dutch and exceptional driver Pogacar was expected. And so it came too. First of all, the two favorites remained closely together in the exciting exchange of blows. In the main field, their helpers put a lot of speed, the distance from a top group of 13 became smaller. After the steep driveway to the Koppenberg, the top group was caught up.

Pogacar repeatedly attacked the last 80 kilometers. Almost 20 kilometers before the finish, he finally shook off the exhausted -acting van der Poel and the small chase group around Pedersen and Wout van Aert (B/Jumbo) in the third crossing of the KWaremont. It was one of the notorious explosive kicks of Pogacar, he expanded the lead to more than 50 seconds – unable to do his competition.

In a week there will be the next showdown between Pogacar and van der Poel. Pogacar will take part in the classic cobblestones Paris-Roubaix for the first time next Sunday and meet his competitor again.

Then Alex Kirsch (Lidl) would like to show what he can do again. He had had a heavy heart and had to do without the Tour of Flanders. 113 of the 175 drivers started on Sunday, including two Luxembourgers: Arthur Kluckers (Tudor/100.) And Bob Jungels (Ineos/109.), Together in a larger peloton with a gap of 10,18  ».

The two local cycling professionals were seen at the front of the finish peloton up to about 60 kilometers before the finish. Then the combination of Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg and Koppenberg definitely brought the main field to explode. Jungels and Kluckers had done their share of teamwork and from then on cycled relatively leisurely to the finish. In particular, Jungels in the race also endeavored to search the leap into the outlier group of the day. However, that shouldn’t work.