Van der Poel

Van der Poel won the sprint for Tour of Flanders victory as Tadej Pogačar tactically tripped himself up in the finale and finished off the podium.

He successfully forced Van der Poel to lead from the front, but with two riders charging them down at far greater pace, the Slovenian waited far too long. By the top of the climb, he led an elite group with a small gap over the fractured bunch. The snow that spiced up race recon seemed a distant memory on the bone dry roads between Antwerp and Oudenaarde, although a full wardrobe of thermal layers was required early in the day.

After a stunning display by Pogačar, it all went wrong for the double Tour winner. Mathieu van der Poel won and Pogačar was 4th.

Perhaps the advantage of having to sprint here a few times was that I was able to win. The Slovenian was closed in in the hectic sprint and finished off the podium. Madouas felt his moment had come and came back at high speed, but was unable to surprise Van der Poel. The Dutchman matched Madouas and sprinted convincingly to his second victory in the Tour of Flanders. On the Pater I was even on the point of being dropped. This was the moment for Pogačar to show his power and with Asgreen in his wheel, he rode to the head of the race. We now had two possible winners with Pogačar and Van der Poel. They started the Paterberg together, the last climb of the day. Due to the efforts of Pogačar, the early break were caught and there was now an elite group of about 30 riders. The lead increased again and the top favourites behind were not prepared to chase for someone else, as a result the difference going to the second pass of the Oude Kwaremont increased to 1:30. An interesting race developed, but with 60 kilometres to go, it was by no means decisive. Alexander Kristoff, winner of ‘Vlaanderens Mooiste’ in 2015 and the leader of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert, had to deal with a mechanical problem, but was able to rejoin thanks to a teammate. It was Nathan van Hooydonck who threw down the gauntlet and the managed to cross to the previously escaped Jonas Koch of BORA-hansgrohe. In the peloton there were several dropped riders due the high pace. DSM and EF Education-EasyPost tried to chase for a while, but it was a wasted effort and the peloton let them go. But, it all went wrong for the double Tour winner as Dylan van Baarle and Valentin Madouas came up from behind to finish behind Mathieu van der Poel and head of Pogačar. A big shock of a finishing sprint.

Dutchman wins his second Ronde as Tadej Pogacar waits too long.

I just tried to recover a little bit every time I was in the wheel, but I was just hurting a lot. "I've never had so much lactic acid [as on the Paterberg], but I knew I had to get over on his wheel," Van der Poel said. Maybe he just needs to sprint here a few more times to get it right." "It was amazing that he was busy with me and not with the others coming back. At the end it was a scenario I've had three times before, so I knew it already. I was almost at the point of dropping.

Dutchman rider Mathieu van der Poel has come out of a four-man sprint to win the Tour of Flanders cobbled classic for the second time on Sunday.

“It’s a pity for Tadej that he is not on the podium today because he deserved it, he did an amazing ride.”The Tour of Flanders is one of the “monuments” of cycling — the five most prestigious one-day events in the sport — along with Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia.First held in 1913, the race is also known as De Ronde. It features multiple short but punishing climbs and is one of the two classics with cobblestone sections along with Paris-Roubaix. Netherland’s Mathieu Van Der Poel of the Alpecin Fenix team, right, crosses the finish line to win the Ronde van Vlaanderen in Oudenaarde, Belgium, Sunday, April 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)OUDENAARDE, Belgium — Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel came out of a four-man sprint to win the Tour of Flanders cobbled classic for the second time on Sunday. Two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar blew his chances in the race’s finale.Van der Poel and Pogacar escaped from the group of remaining contenders and rode together for the last 15 kilometers after the Slovenian rider launched a sharp attack in the Oude Kwaremont climb.Van der Poel was the only one able to follow and the 273-kilometer one-day classic looked set for a two-man sprint.But the leading duo played a cat and mouse game in the final kilometer as Pogacar waited for an opening that never came, and they were ultimately caught by chasers with some 250 meters left.Van der Poel then launched his effort and used his greater power to prevail.Pogacar was boxed behind Frenchman Valentin Madouas and Dutchman Dylan van Baarle in the sprint.

The Alpecin-Fenix rider wins the cobbled Monument for the second time in three years.

I would certainly have awarded him the podium and even the victory." "First, I'm going to enjoy this one," he said. "I have worked so hard for this one.

Dutchman rider Mathieu van der Poel has come out of a four-man sprint to win the Tour of Flanders cobbled classic for the second time on Sunday.

A versatile rider, Van der Poel has won titles in many disciplines and wore the Tour de France yellow jersey for six days last year. “It's incredible, especially, I know where I came from," said Van der Poel, who recovered from a back injury that forced him to cut short his cyclo-cross season. Pogacar was boxed behind Frenchman Valentin Madouas and Dutchman Dylan van Baarle in the sprint. He is the grandson of the late French rider Raymond Poulidor. Van der Poel won his first Tour of Flanders in 2020. Van der Poel and Pogacar escaped from the group of remaining contenders and rode together for the last 15 kilometers after the Slovenian rider launched a sharp attack in the Oude Kwaremont climb. Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel came out of a four-man sprint to win the Tour of Flanders cobbled classic for the second time on Sunday.

2022 saw the Dutchman go up against Tadej Pogačar in the final 18km, the reigning Tour de France champion, on his first time at the Ronde. The pair looked a ...

"I think the most important thing is to have the legs," Van der Poel said. It's normal, no one is going to go full gas in the last km with someone in their wheel." "He was really impressive today," Van der Poel said. The level is really high at the moment, and I'm really happy to win again today." It's difficult to drop someone on the last climbs because the strongest riders are in front and everyone is tired at the end of the race. "Also, my stage win at Coppi e Bartali was really nice, and it's a 2.1 race.

Mathieu van der Poel kept his cool in a tense battle with Tadej Pogacar, who was visibly frustrated by his failure to close out the win.

“At first it wasn’t even sure if I would get to the Classics, [so] to win is incredible,” Van der Poel said afterwards. Van der Poel waited until that moment to start his sprint and Pogacar was boxed in, somehow missing out on what would have been a deserved podium finish. On the next hill, the Koppenberg, Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates) attacked again with only Van der Poel and Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) managing to follow him.

Mathieu van der Poel continues steamrolling into the classics after coming out on top in dramatic duel with Tadej Pogačar.

“On the Koppenberg, Tadej was the first to attack but I also attacked.” “It was the same today. “Only saw them in a blink when they were coming and then I started my sprint,” he said. “Dylan knows when two guys are going to the line they will look at each other. “Today was maybe power-wise my best De Ronde,” van der Poel said. The Koppenberg looked to be the race-breaker.

Dutchman downplays Tour de France aspirations after winning Pogačar duel.

"Wout van Aert would have been in the mix today as well, he would have been in our group for sure. On that occasion, Van der Poel's late charge was perhaps also a remarkable correction of a previous mistake, given that his impetuous attacking earlier in the race had left him flat-footed when Julian Alaphilippe and Jakob Fuglsang surged clear in what looked to be the winning move. "I was really focusing on Pogačar, so I only saw them in a blink coming and then I started my sprint," said Van der Poel, who was seemingly as nerveless in today's two-up finale as he had been on the two previous occasions. Van der Poel still had the speed to fend off his fellow countryman Van Baarle, but Pogačar ended the day empty-handed in fourth. Especially on the last time up the Kwaremont and Paterberg, I was really happy to keep his wheel because I was really on the limit there," said Van der Poel, who acknowledged that the Slovenian debutant probably had his number on the climbs. After beating his old rival Wout van Aert in the pandemic-delayed edition of 2020, he was surprisingly outkicked by Kasper Asgreen a year ago.

Dutchman rider Mathieu van der Poel has come out of a four-man sprint to win the Tour of Flanders cobbled classic for the second time on Sunday.

Experience, experience, bike handling, power, and a bit more experience. Ever wondered what it takes to win Flanders? They say you need experience to win ...

Add to that the 500 watts for a minute on Steenbeekdries, 564 watts for 90 seconds on Taaienberg, 532 watts for over a minute on the Kruisberg, before a repeat of the fabled Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg double. On the Oude Kwaremont itself, Van der Poel averaged 500 watts for five minutes and quickly followed that up with 679 watts for a minute to crest the Paterberg. It is phenomenal stuff, doubly so given how fatigued the riders are hitting this section of the race. As stunning as his victory and KOM were, Jan Tratnik hadn’t read the script and robbed Mathieu of a KOM on the first Oude Kwaremont-Paterberg segment. Van der Poel already had 5.5 hours on the clock when the race hit the Koppenberg yet was still able to unleash 436 W average for over 13 mintues to take the KOM on the segment. Hours after sprinting to his second victory in the Tour of Flanders, Van der Poel has shared his ride on Strava, power data and all. Van der Poel averaged a stunning 285 watts for the 6.5 hours with a peak power of 1,406 W. That’s 1,406 watts in the final seconds of a six-hour-and-thirty-four-minute-long race.

OUDENAARDE, Belgium (AP) — Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel came out of a four-man sprint to win the Tour of Flanders cobbled classic for the second time ...

A versatile rider, Van der Poel has won titles in many disciplines and wore the Tour de France yellow jersey for six days last year. “It’s incredible, especially, I know where I came from,” said Van der Poel, who recovered from a back injury that forced him to cut short his cyclo-cross season. Pogacar was boxed behind Frenchman Valentin Madouas and Dutchman Dylan van Baarle in the sprint.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) illustrated he is a “level above everyone” in his Tour of Flanders triumph...

Here's what some of the pre-race favorites for the men's and women's races said at the start lines in Antwerp and Oudenaarde ahead of mythical cobbled ...

I think people are underestimating what it will do to the race. I think it’s really exciting that I’m going to go up the Koppenberg. Everyone is just focused on this one point of the race. It’s going to be hard and everyone has the same instruction to be at the front at the bottom so it’s going to be mental. I think it will be in pieces after that and I think the race really starts from there. Part of the whole Flanders experience is having the crowds here and just really experiencing that Flanders vibe. I wonder who will take control of the race. We have Asgreen who is one of the favorites, so we go for it. I hope it continues in the race. I think the shape of most of us isn’t 100 percent. The last two years [without crowds] was a bit sad, but I think this year is going to be legendary. We’ll do many of the same things we were going to do anyway. There’s still a lot of top competitors here – last year I went to the finish with Asgreen but without van Aret, so it’s hard to say.

We speak to van der Poel's physio and dive into his training data to understand the Dutchman's fast-track from back problems to De Ronde.

So, take it from “MvdP” – Work on your core and get comfy on the couch when your body needs it. I advise to all bike riders to invest time in conditioning and working on their weaknesses.” “The biggest difference between racing and training stress is the amount of specificity and structured rest periods. “For many riders, training rather than racing is the path to peak form.” “I even ride one hour less on the bike just to do my exercises now.” He never took time to work on his core stability, and the problem – an overuse thing – built up.” So we strengthened his glutes, also the front part of his body like his hip flexors and deep abdominal muscles.” “The only treatment was to have time off. A 15-minute power test saw him average 470w (6.3w/kg) in what was a staggeringly speedy return to form. The preparation has been a bit shorter than if I’d had the choice but I think that it’s been really good.” “I think it’s maybe been one of my best preparations,” van der Poel said before he won Dwars door Vlaanderen last week. To win De Ronde, it’s incredible.”

De Ronde champ compliments rivals van Aert and Pogačar: 'Attacking is the most honest way to be in a final with the best riders.'

“A rider like Wout would have been in the mix and would have been in our group,” he said of the Jumbo-Visma star. Van der Poel was sure to be right there on his wheel going over the top. “He was really impressive today,” van der Poel said. “I didn’t really see it because it was a strange situation. “I prefer to race with him or Pogačar because they prefer to race from far away. The ‘anticipating group’ was caught there, it was a bit of chaos there,” van der Poel said.

Mathieu van der Poel didn't blink in the final 300 metres of Sunday's Ronde van Vlaanderen, allowing chasers to catch up with him and Tadej Pogačar before ...

With 34 km and three cobbled climbs to go, the Pogačar Five had a 40-second gap. Pogačar, van der Poel and Valentin Madouas inched closer to the two leaders after the Steenbeekdries (3.2 km, 7.6 percent). The chase was 40 seconds back. Pogačar pushed clear and then van der Poel took over the whip. The race hit the Koppenberg (600 metres, 11.6 percent) and two riders from the Pogačar bunch dashed ahead to take it on. It took the Taaienberg to form a leading quintet. A 30-man group assailed the Paterberg with 51 km to race. The group fragmented and Pogačar, Pederson, van der Poel, Laporte and Tom Pidcock were in the new dozen. The early breakaway was a minute up the road. The nontet had a 4:00 gap by the time it hit the opening hill, Oude Kwaremont I. On the narrow Molenberg, with 102 km to go, Nathan van Hooydonck of Jumbo-Visma bounced away from the peloton. Christophe Laporte of Jumbo-Visma was one of the riders taken down in a crash. As in E3 Saxo Bank the race ended with the pairing of Oude Kwaremont and the 400-metre, 13.5 percent Paterberg 12.5 km from the finish line in Oudenaarde. Mathieu van der Poel didn’t blink in the final 300 metres of Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen, allowing chasers to catch up with him and Tadej Pogačar before he sprinted to his second Tour of Flanders title in three years.