Tadej Pogacar and Van der Poel gave the 106th edition color, a lot of color. On every slope, Pogacar tried to drive his rival off, but the Dutchman stuck to the wheel with some difficulty. On the Paterberg, Pogacar had one more chance to drive the Dutchman off, but again Van der Poel did not give up. ,,He rode up really, really fast at Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg. I was about to unload on the Paterberg.”
But that didn’t happen. Together they drove to Oudenaarde for the denouement. With a nice lead in their pocket, Dylan van Baarle and Valentin Madouas seemed to be riding for third place at most, but due to a strong piece of bluff poker from Van der Poel they returned in the last hundreds of meters. ,,I boosted myself and gave everything I could in those last meters. I was a bit surprised because those other guys were coming up hard, so I took it myself,” said the winner on Eurosport. Van der Poel then took the sprint, Pogacar was closed in and only finished fourth.
Mathieu van der Poel called Pogacar the strongest in the race and he had even awarded the “offensive driving” Slovenian the victory, but the Dutchman was ultimately the best in the final sprint in the Tour of Flanders. ,,It was a situation that I experienced for the third year in a row, so you know what to do. I am incredibly happy, I worked hard for this. At first it was not even certain that I would ride the classics and now after Dwars door Vlaanderen I will also win the Ronde van Vlaanderen”, Van der Poel concludes in disbelief.
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