The men’s Tour of Flanders was a breathless affair from the start, but it’s a mark of just how talented this current crop of favourites are that there was almost no hope for the lesser contenders – but boy, did they try.
The day’s breakaway was a particularly hot ticket, and some of its eventual participants proved indicative of what was to come. That is, several teams were determined to throw a cat among the pigeons, even if the result was only to make the race more exciting than the wholly conceivable long-range solo victory.
There was early drama as Mathieu van der Poel was caught up in a mass crash soon after the first ascent of the Oude Kwaremont, then the formation of a dangerous chase group including Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck), which led to the premature burning-up of UAE riders in the chase. Tadej Pogačar, however, appeared unfazed and he was soon initiating attacks almost whenever the cobbles tipped skyward.
The key moments
The first pass up the Kwaremont and Paterberg, with 54 and 51 km remaining respectively, saw the first genuine efforts from Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel. In fact, Pogačar didn't even wait for the Kwaremont's cobbles to start before setting off in search of a smaller, more manageable group. He jumped, and Wout van Aert followed.
Van der Poel, perhaps crucially, given later events, was out of position and forced into a furious chase. If returning from the earlier crash was burning one match, this was burning a second.
The first signs of cracks in Visma's otherwise tight tactical ship came over the top of the Paterberg with just under 50 km to go, as Van Aert's shoulders rolled forward and he looked to Jasper Stuyven to close gaps to Matteo Jorgenson. Van Aert seemed to get a second wind later, but it was not the body language of a rider feeling his best.
The moves pushed a large chunk of the duo's group off the back, but up ahead in a breakaway remained a sizeable contingent of big names, including Ganna and Benoot. The front slowly coalesced, stitched together by the pace of Pogačar and van der Poel as they rode up and through the remaining breakaway riders. At 40 km to go, the group had three apiece from Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike, which then fell to five total riders by 20 km to go – Pogačar, Van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, Stuyven, and Van Aert – before the final time up the Oude Kwaremont.
And finally, it only took the first few revolutions of his acceleration for Pogačar to leave the rest behind.
Van der Poel tried to hold on, but it was impossible, and by the top he’d already lost around 12 seconds, with Pedersen, Stuyven and Van Aert joining the fight, the latter having caught his old rival and led the chase up the remainder of the cobbled climb.
The gap had already reached a near-terminal half minute by the foot of the Paterberg, and the quartet settled into riding for second in the flat 10 km run-in. Pedersen sprinted to second, with Van der Poel taking third in his shadow and Van Aert just missing out on a visit to the podium in fourth.
[race_result id=5 stage_id=0 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]
More to come ...
Did we do a good job with this story?
