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OUDENAARDE, Belgium (Velo) – Together with Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel shared the role of top favorite in the Tour of Flanders before the race. A mid-race high-speed crash and illness earlier this week didn’t help to defend his chances.
On Sunday the Slovenian world champion slowly demolished the 30 year-old Dutch ace with countless accelerations. On the final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont, Van der Poel had to bow his head and admit he didn’t have it. In the battle for second place, Mads Pedersen was faster on the line, holding off Van der Poel and Wout van Aert.
Van der Poel acknowledged that Pogačar was better but regretted that he wasn’t reaching peak form on Sunday. He didn’t want to use the mid-race high-speed crash as an excuse.
“All in all, it was ok. I think we came away lucky. Obviously, it wasn’t ideal. My shoulder is hurting a bit. It’s a pity but it’s part of racing. They crashed in front of us. It’s a road where you’re going at high speed. We were on the left and there was no way to escape it,” Van der Poel said.
“The strongest man won today. Flanders is honest. The rider who reaches the top of the Kwaremont or Paterberg solo, wins. It’s always been like that. I wasn’t good enough and ran out of steam a bit too quickly.
“I’d prefer to have won but I’m realistic enough to know that I can’t win every year. I’m glad to be on the podium.”
‘I wasn’t enjoying a good day…I might have been able to keep up’
During the third ascent of the Oude Kwaremont, Pogačar accelerated as soon as the cobbles came into sight. Van der Poel hung on for dear life. The duo swerved around Wout van Aert who had pre-emptively attacked before the climb but then Van der Poel seemed to hit the red zone and faded back.
“Yeah, I was realistic enough to know that it wasn’t going to work out. Beforehand I already felt a few times that I wasn’t enjoying the legs that are needed to survive the final time over the Kwaremont. I did try to hang on because I didn’t want to have any regrets later. I felt that I was going over the limit,” Van der Poel said.
“It’s not a surprise to see the race unfold this way. Two years ago it happened in the same way. It’s a pity that I wasn’t enjoying a really good day because then maybe I might have been able to keep up. That doesn’t help me now, so on to next year.”
Next year is another chance to get to four victories in Flanders and break the record. With three wins in Flanders, Van der Poel shares the record with famous names like Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara and Johan Museeuw. However he knew before Sunday it wouldn’t be easy to get to four victories. “There’s enough riders who won three times, of which everybody thought they would win five or six times. It’s not an easy race.
“Maybe Pogačar has a bigger chance to break the record if he keeps coming back every year. I knew it would be difficult to take it because I wasn’t feeling good at the beginning of the week.
“I said before the race that I have to be 110 percent to follow Pogačar and that turned out to be true.”
Getting over illness
Van der Poel talked about not being in peak form, and that showed during the interviews at the mixed zone in Oudenaarde. “Yeah, I’m still sounding nasally. I’m not 100 per cent yet. After E3 I’ve been quite sick for three days. I needed antibiotics. I lost a few percentages there. I hope to be better in Roubaix.”
The Dutch ace won the race on French cobbles the last two years. He feels things are improving as that big contest approaches.
“It was much better the last few days,” he said of those symptoms. “Especially at the beginning of the week I was bothered by it. I hope I’ll be enjoying my best form next week. Last week I’ve been resting up a lot, to allow the cold to disappear.
“I hope I can train a bit more this week to get ready and go out with a bang in Roubaix. It’s a somewhat different race. Jasper Stuyven and Mads Pedersen rode a strong race too.
“There’s always more candidate winners in Roubaix than in Flanders. You need a bit of luck too. It’ll be an exciting race.”
