Tadej Pogacar denied Mathieu van der Poel a document fourth Tour of Flanders title when the Slovenian gained the second Monument of the season in Belgium for the second time in his profession on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Pogacar, who skipped the 2024 version to concentrate on a Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double, had gained the Tour of Flanders in 2023. Second within the 268.9-km race, which began in Markt in Bruges and concluded in Minderbroedersstraat in Oudenaarde, was the Dane, Mads Pedersen with Belgium-born Van der Poel coming third to finish the rostrum. Dwelling heros Wout Van Aert and Jasper Stuyven rounded up the highest 5.
Pogacar got here into the race as one of many favourites, having loved a outstanding run by profitable the lads’s highway race title on the world championships in September so as to add to his triumphs on the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, and lived as much as expectations.
He delivered a devastating 19-km solo assault from the Oude Kwaremont climb, and there was little doubt in regards to the end result from then on as he crossed the end line together with his arms outstretched in celebration.
With the triumph, Pogacar additionally avenged his Milan-San Remo loss to Van der Poel in March, which was the primary Monument race of the season. Van der Poel had gained the 2020, 2022, 2024 editions of the Tour of Flanders.
Van der Poel was concerned in a crash, which concerned about 20 cyclists, however the 30-year-old Dutchman managed to get again up and return to the entrance with the assistance of his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Edward Planckaert of Belgium.
“The aim was to win, however ultimately, it’s exhausting to grasp it. We did it and I can’t be extra happy with the group and the way we raced at this time, although we had some dangerous luck. In the long run, all was good. I’m simply so blissful to win this race on this jersey,” Pogacar mentioned.
“The plan was to go from there [the Oude Kwaremont], we adopted the plan although we had some crashes with teammates. We made it, we caught to the plan and completed it off.
“There was a crash on the large highway, we misplaced Jhony [Jhonatan Narváez] right here, Tim [Wellens] and Florian [Vermeersch]. Florian in some way was chasing again all of the race roughly, and made it simply in time to guide out on the Kwaremont. Chapeau to him. We by no means gave up.”
The remaining Monuments within the biking calendar are Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Giro di Lombardia. Paris-Roubaix takes place subsequent Sunday.
“It [Paris-Roubaix] is a totally totally different race however I’ll settle for the problem and attempt to do my finest. Flanders fits me a bit higher, however you by no means know, Roubaix can be a really exhausting race and with this form I’ve now, I ought to give it a strive,” Pogacar added.
Within the girls’s race, Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) delivered on her pre-race favorite tag to take the win and add to her titles in 2022 and 2023. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Liane Lippert (Movistar) accomplished the rostrum. Kopecky pulled clear with a bunch of three different riders to place herself in a commanding place the place she briefly bided her time earlier than her victory dash.
Just like the winner, the defending champion Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Crew ADQ) was in line for a document third win however in a chaotic begin, she was one in all many who crashed early on. Regardless of making an attempt to proceed, she in the end withdrew.
“It was a loopy race with plenty of crashes at first,” Kopecky mentioned. “I used to be fairly nervous and I didn’t have the most effective legs at first however I attempted to remain calm. After just a few climbs my legs felt higher and higher and [I knew] ultimately I had an excellent probability. As soon as it was simply the 4 of us, I used to be fairly assured, really.”
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