Information editor at Biking Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on on the higher echelons of our sport.
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As Mathieu van der Poel soloed his method to victory on the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, powering in direction of Oudenaarde with victory in sight, the group of Dutch or Belgian followers in entrance of me within the fan zone on the Oude Kwaremont rotated and accosted me and my pals for not clapping vociferously sufficient for the brand new champion.
Perhaps it was the grim climate or the actual fact we had been standing in the identical little bit of Belgian bathroom for 3 hours by this level, however none of us appeared significantly enamoured by Van der Poel’s third win at De Ronde, his third in simply 5 editions, the truth is. It was a critically spectacular journey given all the pieces, and doubtlessly Van der Poel’s finest victory, nevertheless it didn’t fill us with the joy we craved.
It’s troublesome to clarify this degree of indifference to a legend being topped in entrance of our eyes, and possibly it’s simply our cynicism, however finally it felt like Van der Poel was all the time going to win on Sunday, and this inevitability felt a bit uninteresting. The successful margin was solely simply over a minute in the long run, nevertheless it felt like there was a yawning chasm between the Dutchman and everybody else. A chasm which made the race really feel a bit boring in the long run, regardless of the epic climate.
Final yr, after we have been stood in precisely the identical spot doing precisely the identical factor, Tadej Pogačar’s victory occurred proper in entrance of our eyes, and felt totally different, probably as a result of till the purpose he launched his successful assault, it nonetheless wasn’t utterly clear that the Slovenian might win this Monument.
We already knew Van der Poel had the ability to win Flanders, however with Pogačar not current, and with Wout van Aert out with an damage sustained at Dwars door Vlaanderen final week, the sector was missing a possible challenger to forestall the Dutchman’s victory. It felt inevitable. Add the truth that different contenders like Mads Perdersen and his Lidl-Trek squad have been hampered after the identical Classics-defining crash, and Van der Poel had all of it his personal manner.
Watching the world champion roll out of Antwerp on Sunday morning, it felt like he was going to win. As others struggled within the muddy situations on the Koppenberg and Paterberg, it felt like he was going to win. And so he did.
None of that is in any manner unhealthy, and it’s testomony to how good – doubtlessly nice – a rider Van der Poel is, one which has now gained 5 Monuments, nevertheless it doesn’t make for thrilling sport, one which enthrals. It was not a simple win by any means, however there was no nice battle on this yr’s males’s race. That is nothing new, in fact, and is replicated in stage racing for the time being by each Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, however much less inevitability and extra of a contest could be very welcome.
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This stood in distinction to a way more open, far more thrilling ladies’s race, which isn’t a shock. Elisa Longo Borghini’s victory got here on the finish of a titanic tussle, and was not assured till proper on the finish, due to Kasia Niewiadoma’s tenacity. The minor errors made by Lotte Kopecky and her SD Worx-Protime staff made the race much more predictable, and the grim situations made it an epic, one thing the boys’s race wasn’t.
Paris-Roubaix is subsequent week, a race that’s even tougher to regulate or predict, however with no Van Aert, and others nonetheless affected by that Dwars crash, a Van der Poel victory could be onerous to wager in opposition to.
Simply as with the Dutchman’s pal, Pogačar, it feels that it will take one thing outstanding for him to not be difficult for the win. I’ll be hoping for an even bigger problem at Roubaix, even when Van der Poel will get his fingers on one other cobblestone within the velodrome.
I suppose, in a manner, it is a lengthy winded manner of responding to these drunk followers on the Kwaremont. Van der Poel is perhaps spectacular, however I don’t take pleasure in inevitability.
This piece is a part of The Leadout, the providing of newsletters from Biking Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe right here.
