"Winning is not as easy as everybody thinks," Mathieu van der Poel said, an hour or so after he had notched up his second Tour of Flanders victory in three years. All through his career, the Dutchman has made the winning business look disarmingly straightforward, toggling between disciplines with remarkable facility and picking up bouquets almost as a matter of course.
Here, for once, the swan could clearly be seen paddling furiously beneath the surface. On the final time up the Paterberg, Van der Poel briefly looked to have lost contact with his breakaway companion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). As the gradient bit, Van der Poel appeared to be struggling to keep his gear turning over, but he seemed almost to turn back time, straining from the saddle and inching his way back up to the two-time winner's wheel.
As if that visual impression weren't enough, the numbers Van der Poel posted to Strava as he waited to mount the podium seemed to confirm that following Pogačar through the Flemish Ardennes is beyond the reach of most. The Alpecin-Fenix rider's maximum power output was an eye-watering 1400 watts.
"I think today was maybe power-wise my best Tour of Flanders. Pogačar was really impressive on the climbs so I was happy to stay on his wheel. 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. "He was maybe the strongest in the race, and he rode offensively."
Sunday marked the third time in as many years that Van der Poel has reached the finish of the Ronde in a two-man move. 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. Two out of three ain't bad, even if the crowds on Oudenaarde's Markt could probably talk all night about the way Van der Poel and Pogačar almost frittered away their advantage in the final kilometre.
Forced to lead out the sprint, Van der Poel slowed dramatically within sight of the line, allowing chasers Dylan van Baarle (Ineos) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) to catch them in the final 200 metres. Van der Poel still had the speed to fend off his fellow countryman Van Baarle, but Pogačar ended the day empty-handed in fourth.
"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. "I don't feel any stress or I don't get nervous or anything. I just focus on my sprint. Also today, I was pretty calm and I just tried to launch my sprint at the right moment."
