Race Breakdown: Gent-Wevelgem was one more nice race for the followers: Mathieu van der Poel confirmed once more that he’s on prime kind after his win within the E3 Saxo Basic, he completed second, on account of a really robust Mads Pedersen. However, Visma | Lease a Bike and Lotto Dstny had been virtually invisible.
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Mads Pedersen should now be a favorite for De Ronde
Mads Pedersen’s 2024 season, to date, has been phenomenal. The Dane received Etoile de Bessèges – Tour du Gard (general, 1 stage and factors), Tour de la Provence (general, factors and three levels), two second stage locations in Paris-Good, 4th in Milano-Sanremo and now the win in Gent-Wevelgem. The one disappointment may very well be ending eleventh within the E3 Saxo Basic. The thought that this was ‘early season’ kind, whereas different riders had been nonetheless constructing their health, was dispelled in Gent-Wevelgem. Pedersen was as robust as Van der Poel and placed on the ache on a few events after which beat him within the dash. Together with his victory in Wevelgem, Pedersen should now be a favorite within the Tour of Flanders together with Van der Poel and Wout van Aert.
Did the World champion do an excessive amount of?
Mathieu van der Poel has an issue: he needs to race and possibly that enthusiasm labored in opposition to him on Sunday. “He ought to maybe have been rather less beneficiant together with his efforts,” Alpecin-Deceuninck workforce supervisor Philip Roodhooft identified. Attributable to his acceleration the primary time up the Kemmelberg, the assaults on the ‘gravel’ and the chase of Jonathan Milan, Van der Poel used up most of his reserves. Would he have received the dash if he had tempered his earlier efforts? Pedersen went for a protracted onerous dash which was an excessive amount of for the World champion, probably mentally in addition to bodily and Van der Poel cracked in sight of the road. Van der Poel is within the type of his life and desires that Ronde win, can he do something in every week? His drawback is clearly not bodily.
Laurence Pithie is the person to observe
Laurence Pithie has been the revelation of the 2024 spring to date. Pithie’s season began within the Tour Down Beneath and took his first WorldTour victory. Then again in Europe he was on the entrance of the battle in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, the place he was shoulder-to-shoulder with Wout van Aert, Tim Wellens and Oier Lazkano, however he cracked within the hills. The same factor occurred in Gent-Wevelgem, he was with Mads Pedersen and Mathieu van der Poel, however the second climb of the Kemmel was simply an excessive amount of. Pithie is the person to observe, in every Basic he has bought nearer to the end line with the highest riders. At 21 years-old, Pithie has time and he has proven what he can do, he simply wants a little bit of luck and slightly bit extra expertise.
Visma | Lease a Bike had been seen early within the race
Visma | Lease a Bike was at the beginning in Gent-Wevelgem with no true chief. No Van Aert, Laporte, Van Baarle and Jorgenson. The Dutch workforce was at the beginning with none plans to manage the race and reap the benefits of any probability that comes their approach; Keep in mind Jan Tratnik within the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. However luck was not on the aspect of the Dutch super-team. Jan Tratnik changed the injured Per Strand Hagenes, however he crashed and hit his head. Then Tosh Van der Sande needed to abandon. It must be a special story within the Tour of Flanders for Visma | Lease a Bike, they are going to have Wout van Aert trying to win one in all his large targets for the season. However will they’ve the foot troopers to again up the Belgian? Christoph Laporte has been sick and received’t be at the beginning and the workforce has many accidents, the place does this depart Wout?
The place was Arnaud De Lie?
A lot was anticipated from Arnaud De Lie this spring, however he completed ninetieth in Gent-Wevelgem. Lotto Dstny DS, Nikolas Maes, spoke of the workforce’s dilemma: “This isn’t the traditional Arnaud. We should talk about with numerous events find out how to proceed. This was a really unhealthy day. We’re going to have numerous assessments finished. That boy simply must reset. Now we have to make selections which can be extra drastic than a program change and slightly relaxation.” So is the spring over for De Lie?
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