It was inevitable, really.
There was hope for a mano-a-mano-a-mano battle between Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel and Amstel Gold-winner Tom Pidcock, but the combination of a mid-race mishap and Pogačar’s stratospheric climbing talent put the Slovenian off the front by halfway up the Côte de la Redoute – and that, as they say, was that.
- It looked like the big showdown might have gone up in smoke just inside the last 100 km when a crash on a narrow stretch of road split the peloton. Van der Poel and Pidcock were both caught out of position as UAE Team Emirates put its foot down in the first third-or-so of the peloton, and by the time they’d got going, the gap was at least 30 seconds, and building.
- UAE Team Emirates had apparently already planned to put the hammer down early to weaken the bunch before their leader’s inevitable attack, but with at least two top riders off the back, they had the help of Israel-Premier Tech in setting the pace. Derek Gee and Jakob Fuglsang were among those who buried themselves for their leaders Stevie Williams and Dylan Teuns, but that was more or less the extent of the team’s influence on the race – Williams ultimately dropped off the back with a near-audible pop at the foot of La Redoute.
- For a while, the gap seemed to be going in one direction only – the wrong one for the world champion – and for fear of missing out, Pidcock opted to go it alone, tempting out Mauri Vansevenant and Romain Grégoire, as Van der Poel made no effort to react. With their disadvantage dropping from 1:10 to 40 seconds, the trio gained teammates who dropped back and helped them regain contact. However, just moments later, Van der Poel and co. also tagged the back of the peloton, and all could take a breath.
- With the snow confined to history and the sun shining on the weary bunch, UAE Team Emirates continued to keep the pace high and inject fear into the peloton, all the way to the crucial climb of La Redoute. The 1.6-kilometre climb has been a key launchpad since its first inclusion in the ’70s, but Pogačar still managed to take the bunch by surprise, going almost a kilometre from the summit.
- Ben Healy had positioned himself smartly on the wheel of Domen Novak who had been Pogačar’s MVP all race long, but the Irishman was unable to grab hold of the coattails when the Slovenian national champion fired off Healy’s own rear wheel.
- His EF Education-EasyPost teammate Richard Carapaz seemed to appear from almost nowhere and leapt onto Pogačar’s tail, providing a brief stir of excitement – with Van der Poel and Pidcock M.I.A., struggling with the fierce uphill pace – but even the superb climber that Carapaz is was unable to hold on, losing grip over 400 metres from the crest.
- Pogačar crested the Côte de la Redoute alone and continued to extend his gap as the chase group gathered itself on the descent. Within five kilometres, he’d gained almost a minute, and once it tipped over that crucial point, the chase seemed to resign itself to racing for second.
- Healy was determined to keep things moving, breaking a quartet off the group and reaching out for the podium, but only Romain Bardet – who was racing the Tour of the Alps on Friday – survived with a gap as the group swelled behind. Bardet held on for second 1:39 behind Pogačar, and a little over 20 seconds later, Van der Poel led himself out for third place from the chase.
Brief results:
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Quotes of the day:
“I was riding for Urška’s mother today.”
Pogačar paid tribute to mother of Urška Žigart, WorldTour pro (also racing Liège-Bastogne-Liège today) and his fiancée. Žigart’s mother died of cancer two years ago.
After a rollercoaster of a day out, Van der Poel was surprised to join Pogačar on the podium at the end of a long and successful Classics campaign in which he’s only finished outside the top 10 once, and has been on the podium three times out of seven – not to mention that Flanders-Roubaix double.
“Even with those legs [from earlier in the spring] I wouldn’t be able to do anything against Tadej Pogacar. On la Redoute it was important for me to ride at my own pace and not get too worked up … I stayed calm and was still able to get on track. I don’t really know how I managed to get on the podium, but I am very happy with this podium spot.”
Van der Poel told Sporza after the finish.
Brief analysis:
- Some could argue that both Van der Poel and Pidcock rode themselves out of the race in or after the crash and bottleneck that held up so many. It’s important to mention that Pidcock was unfortunately positioned having reportedly suffered a mechanical, but Van der Poel can use no such excuse, the world champion opting to do his own legwork by drifting back to the cars to drop off layers, and hovering at the back of the bunch. That meant that both favourites were heavily delayed and faced a near-race-ending dilemma. The options were: rely on teammates to drag things back together, or take matters into your own hands and launch a bridging effort. Van der Poel chose the former – with some suggesting the Dutchman wasn’t really ‘on it’ today – while Pidcock went for the latter, but both ultimately regained contact with the peloton at almost exactly the same time. The Brit will surely have paid for his earlier efforts when it came to La Redoute (he finished 10th in the end), while Van der Poel was simply unable to respond.
- All that said, there were a lot of team cars around during those 20 kilometres, which is fair enough in a way, i.e. there were riders and groups all over the road, and narrow roads at that, so hard for them to get out of the way, but one or two seemed to be giving a bit of assistance to their delayed riders. There were no punishments handed down, and what could the commissaires have done, really? DQ’d the car and top-placed rider from that team? Banished the whole group? Or looked the other way following bad luck not of their own making? A crash is still a race incident though, just like a puncture … Whatever way you look at it, two or three men certainly did lose out from the tow(s): Pidcock, Vansevenant and Grégoire.
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