Van der Poel has to wait for at least another year for the age of four in Flanders – but Pogacar is now also chasing that record

It seemed so simple. Just win one more time, and Mathieu van der Poel would have received his record: four final victories in the Tour of Flanders-something that no rider succeeded earlier in the 112-year history of the race. The form was there; Matter of staying concentrated.

So far the theory. The practice was unruly, Van der Poel had to admit Sunday. The riders had already left in the tent behind the finish when he came to walk in the sun on his dead field. Black hat on his head, white sneakers at his feet. Bike nowhere to be seen.

He was third, after three victories and two second places in the last five editions of De Ronde. Reports by Tadej Pogacar, the best cyclist of the moment, who came across the finish with more than a minute ahead of his pursuers. Van der Poel lost the sprint for the second place of Mads Pedersen from Denmark. Yet he was happy with his place on stage, he said.

He had said it himself, in advance, to all those people who thought he would break that record for a while: the Tour of Flanders cannot just be won four times. Enough riders who have gone to it. Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara and – in a further past – Achiel Buysse and Fiorenzo Magni: powerful drivers, big winners – and they all got stuck on three. « And they thought, » said Van der Poel with an stunned smile, « that they would win five or six times. »

What Van der Poel did not say before the course, but now it was: there was a clear reason for his defeat. He didn’t feel so good for a week. After his victory in the E3 Prize Harelbeeke, a few weeks and a half ago, he had « been reasonably ill for three days and he had » caught antibiotics.  » « I lost a few percent there. » And that makes cycling the difference between winning and losing. « I felt a few times in the game before that I had no top legs. »

And top legs, he needed them to win from Pogacar, his big rival. Two weeks ago, Van der Poel beat him in Milan-Sanremo, the first major classic of the year. And so every cycling fan had been looking forward to their second game in this spring for weeks. Only once before Pogacar and he met on the Flemish cobblestones, in 2023. Then Pogacar won.

Strong Van Aert

The two riders treated the cycling audience on Sunday to a beautiful Tour of Flanders. But it was not a real one-on-one duel: Van der Poel was not strong enough for that. The final was colored by at least three other riders, with the Vlaming Wout van Aert as a positive surprise. He raced, after a moderate and uncertain spring, extremely strong and finished fourth.

Pogacar, from fifty kilometers before the finish, did what he always does: attack and attack again, just as long as all his competitors drop out. The first gear came on Passage two (from three) from the Oude Kwaremont, the cobblestone climb on which he placed his winning demarrage two years ago. For a moment it seemed as if Van der Poel could not follow. Yet with a powerful power explosion he returned to Pogacars wheel.

After that, a leading group formed with all the favorites: in addition to Pogacar and Van der Poel, also Mads Pedersen and-on behalf of the Dutch Visma team-Van Aert and the American Matteo Jorgenson. In the kilometers that followed, Pogacar acceleration continued to place on acceleration: on the Paterberg, the Koppenberg and even on Mariaborrestraat, a largely flat cobblestone strip. Each time he did not get Van der Poel and the rest off.

In the third and final passage on the Oude Kwaremont, after an attack by Van Aert, Pogacar demarcated for the seventh time – and finally nobody could follow anymore. Also not Van der Poel. « I felt a few times before that I wasn’t good enough to follow Pogacar, » he said afterwards.  »

After Pogacar’s final acceleration, the game had been driven. The gap he had beaten at the top of the Oude Kwaremont became steady in the last sixteen kilometers to the Oudenaarde finish place, until finally more than a minute.

Tired Pogacar

In the press conference afterwards, Pogacar said that he was « indescribably happy » with his second victory in Flanders. In a stuffy room he praised his teammates one by one and said that the course had « more or less » according to plan – although « did not go perfectly. » Pogacar looked tired for his do. The question why this was the case, he parried with a joke: « Thank you for the compliment that I normally so fresh. »

At Mathieu van der Poel, in the tent further down, it was soon about Paris-Roubaix, the course in which Pogacar and he and each other will again meet next week. Van der Poel already won the Northern French cobblestone classic twice-Pogacar makes his debut on Sunday. « Roubaix, » Van der Poel said, is « a very different competition »: also cobblestones, but then flat.

And that historic fourth victory in De Ronde, the course that doesn’t just give itself? Well, Van der Poel said: « I think Pogacar has the best chance of breaking that record. »

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