Mathieu van der Poel came into Sunday’s Tour of Flanders full of confidence. Fresh off a Ronde-Roubaix double last year and a recent victory over Tadej Pogacar at Milano-Sanremo, spirits were high. But in hindsight, did he miscalculate his strategy?
It seems Van der Poel may have been too focused on replicating his past success at San Remo rather than learning from what happened at Flanders in 2023, where Pogacar broke away on the Kwaremont. On Sunday, Mathieu appeared to mimic Pogacar’s style — his team worked like UAE’s, he pushed the pace on climbs, and even launched attacks of his own. But all that effort added up, and in the final stages, he ran out of steam. Pogacar, more used to grinding through mountainous terrain, took control and powered ahead.
Arguably, Van der Poel could have approached it more tactically. Perhaps he should’ve avoided sharing the workload with Pogacar, conserved his energy, and counted on riders like Mads Pedersen and Wout van Aert to wear the Slovenian down. That way, even if Pogacar still ended up on top, he would have had to dig far deeper to get there. Maybe it would’ve narrowed the gap on the last climb we’ll never know.
Of course, there’s the risk someone like Pedersen could’ve out-sprinted him in the end, but that might be a gamble worth taking. It’s certainly a better prospect than trying to match Pogacar on the climbs, which has already proven to be a losing battle both in 2023 and again this year.
Eddy Merckx, despite his dominance, only won two Tours of Flanders because rivals banded together to neutralize him. Perhaps Van der Poel needs to take a similar approach, find allies in the classics and rethink how to take on the unstoppable force that is Tadej Pogacar.
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