Mathieu van der Poel appeared liberated on the E3 Saxo Basic. With Milan-San Remo within the bag and the Tour of Flanders every week away, the Dutchman raced with abandon on Friday and digested defeat nearly as swiftly as he’d sailed up the Taaienberg.
It was on Tom Boonen’s favorite climb that Van der Poel determined to open the race up with some 80km nonetheless to run. Just one man was capable of observe: his previous foe Wout van Aert, with Tadej Pogačar notably out of place and lagging behind.
There was a regrouping of types, however Van der Poel determined to gentle it up once more on the Stationberg with 57km to go, coming off the furry descent and nearly opening straight up with a vicious acceleration on the cobbled drag.
Van Aert adopted once more and this time Pogačar was alive to it. Though they linked up with an earlier transfer, it was obvious these three have been a number of cuts above anybody else within the race, and so it proved as they powered over the Paterberg and Oude Kwaremont to trip the finale as a trio.
On the line, Van der Poel appeared to open the dash however needed to bow to Van Aert, suggesting his prior exertions might have sapped his pace on the line.
“I’ve been somewhat too keen alongside the best way, I believe,” Van der Poel stated.
“I wished to make it a protracted and exhausting finale, to completely put together myself for subsequent week. That definitely labored out. I felt good on all climbs and was capable of carry out some good forcings a number of instances.”
Van der Poel appeared the favorite for the three-up dash, given Pogačar’s relative lack of ending pace and given Van Aert had proven glimpses of weak spot when Pogačar went hell-for-leather on the Oude Kwaremont.
Nevertheless, the Milan-San Remo winner argued the situations favoured Van Aert.
“We began at simply over 200 meters, stuffed with tailwind. So it wasn’t actually that lengthy a dash,” Van der Poel stated.
“Ultimately Wout van Aert was too robust however I can reside with second place.”
Even when he bounced again so strongly for the dash, it will not have escaped Van der Poel’s consideration that his previous foe could not maintain the wheel on the Kwaremont, nor that the collective energy of his Jumbo-Visma workforce was successfully cancelled out.
There might have been mitigating circumstances within the type of a crash for Dylan van Baarle and a mechanical for Tiesj Benoot, however the numbers have been even – Van der Poel with Søren Kragh Andersen for firm and Van Aert with Nathan Van Hooydonck – earlier than it got here right down to the ultimate three.
As such, Van der Poel – who successfully stated he’d raced in a approach that might lay some foundations for a future race – noticed his cup as very a lot half full.
“Within the dash, I got here up brief however I can reside with second place,” he stated.
“For positive I wished to win at this time, I’ve by no means gained this race. I have been shut – my first time I used to be third [in 2021] and now I used to be second, so perhaps I’ve to return again subsequent 12 months.”
Van der Poel isn’t as a result of race once more earlier than the Tour of Flanders, skipping Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen to focus totally on the Ronde subsequent Sunday.
“Higher to be overwhelmed now than subsequent week,” he stated.
