Tadej Pogacar denied Mathieu van der Poel a record fourth Tour of Flanders title when the Slovenian won the second Monument of the season in Belgium for the second time in his career on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Pogacar, who skipped the 2024 edition to focus on a Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double, had won the Tour of Flanders in 2023. Second in the 268.9-km race, which started in Markt in Bruges and concluded in Minderbroedersstraat in Oudenaarde, was the Dane, Mads Pedersen with Belgium-born Van der Poel coming third to complete the podium. Home heros Wout Van Aert and Jasper Stuyven rounded up the top five.
Pogacar came into the race as one of the favourites, having enjoyed a remarkable run by winning the men’s road race title at the world championships in September to add to his triumphs at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, and lived up to expectations.
He delivered a devastating 19-km solo attack from the Oude Kwaremont climb, and there was no doubt about the outcome from then on as he crossed the finish line with his arms outstretched in celebration.
With the triumph, Pogacar also avenged his Milan-San Remo loss to Van der Poel in March, which was the first Monument race of the season. Van der Poel had won the 2020, 2022, 2024 editions of the Tour of Flanders.
Van der Poel was involved in a crash, which involved about 20 cyclists, but the 30-year-old Dutchman managed to get back up and return to the front with the help of his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Edward Planckaert of Belgium.
“The goal was to win, but in the end, it is hard to realise it. We did it and I cannot be more proud of the team and how we raced today, even though we had some bad luck. In the end, all was good. I’m just so happy to win this race in this jersey,” Pogacar said.
“The plan was to go from there [the Oude Kwaremont], we followed the plan even though we had some crashes with teammates. We made it, we stuck to the plan and finished it off.
“There was a crash on the big road, we lost Jhony [Jhonatan Narváez] here, Tim [Wellens] and Florian [Vermeersch]. Florian somehow was chasing back all the race more or less, and made it just in time to lead out on the Kwaremont. Chapeau to him. We never gave up.”
The remaining Monuments in the cycling calendar are Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Giro di Lombardia. Paris-Roubaix takes place next Sunday.
“It [Paris-Roubaix] is a completely different race but I will accept the challenge and try to do my best. Flanders suits me a bit better, but you never know, Roubaix is also a very hard race and with this shape I have now, I should give it a try,” Pogacar added.
In the women’s race, Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) delivered on her pre-race favourite tag to take the win and add to her titles in 2022 and 2023. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Liane Lippert (Movistar) completed the podium. Kopecky pulled clear with a group of three other riders to put herself in a commanding position where she briefly bided her time before her victory sprint.
Like the winner, the defending champion Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) was in line for a record third win but in a chaotic start, she was one of many who crashed early on. Despite attempting to continue, she ultimately withdrew.
“It was a crazy race with a lot of crashes in the beginning,” Kopecky said. “I was pretty nervous and I didn’t have the best legs in the beginning but I tried to stay calm. After a few climbs my legs felt better and better and [I knew] in the end I had a good chance. Once it was just the four of us, I was pretty confident, actually.”