E3 Saxo Classic 2023
A better, more perfectly Belgian classic race than the romantically named E3 Classic (an equivalently titled US race would be NJ Turnpike GP) cannot be found. This is one worth rewatching, for the beauty of Flanders, the non-stop racing action with the field stretching and cracking, reassembling then stretching and cracking again, over and over, the artistry of the Belgian camera crews - they are the very best in the world – and the never-seen-before quality of the current racers who have embraced the attacking nature of today’s cycling. Eddy Merckx must approve.
The presence of wunderkind Tadej Pogačar on the start line (don’t forget, he won the ‘Young Rider classification at the Tour last year), brought excitement levels for the race to a new high. The Slovenian, riding the E3 for the first time, was there for a final preparation in his quest to better his fourth place at last year’s Tour of Flanders, that race to be held this Sunday.
Things became serious at 80-k to go on the cobbled, 700-meter-long Taaienberg where Matthieu van der Poel turned on his afterburners and shredded the field on the 16% climb. Wout Van Aert, struggled yet slowly clawed his way back to his archrival’s wheel, a theme we’d be seeing for the rest of the day. Missing was Pogačar, mired behind in the elbow-throwing anarchy of a peloton desperate to make it to the front on the tiny roads. Pogačar, after the climb and alone at the head of the second group, chased the break in front, where, luckily for him, Van Aert stopped collaborating, afraid to go the distance with the literally Flying Dutchman.
With 75-k to go, young American Matteo Jorgenson, really finding his feet in Belgium, went solo, staying out in front alone for 10-kilometers in the hope that a strong group would come up to him, but he was reabsorbed and missed the counter.
Van der Poel went like mad on the next cobblestone climb, the relatively mild 700-meter Stationberg, 12th of the day located 55-k to the finish. Van Aert struggled yet managed to close (this same thing has been going on since Milano-Sanremo) with, again, Pogačar behind and closing like a missile. The action, which served to both catch the break in front and destroy the field, created the final group in front which included two Jumbo-Visma (Van Aert and Big Bad Nathan Van Hooydonck), two Alpecin-Deceuninck (van der Poel and Søren Kragh Andersen – the Milan-Sanremo duo deluxe), and two Slovenian representatives of the Arab states, Tadej Pogačar and Matej Mohorič, UEA and Bahrain-Victorious respectively. The break worked together to perfection, given the makeup, no reason to do otherwise.
Behind, disarray and resignation until 50-k to go when Ineos, realizing that Quickstep were non-existent and no one else had the legs, put young Ben Turner on the front who, with that ungainly style, rode his guts out for team leader Filippo Ganna, singlehandedly holding the break at around 40” for 10-kilometers. Ineos was missing experience. They needed an in-form Kwiatowski or Luke Rowe to guide Ganna, who is still not at ease in these situations. He’s often/always badly positioned, misses crucial feeds and, so far, to be in a winning position, must be placed there by a team of horses as we saw at Milano-Sanremo.
43-K to go and the Paterberg, the short, 20% cobbled beauty where Pogačar came out to play. He ripped up the climb, in the saddle while everyone else stood and danced for their lives, pulling out van der Poel and again, a trailing Van Aert, with Mohorič, after one of his patented descents, being the only one able to bridge. Which didn’t last long as the Oude Kwaremont, the 2.2-K cobbled showpiece of Flandrien racing, came 3-K later where Pogačar repeated his attack, just about, but not quite, eliminating Van Aert who, yet, yet again, found the strength to pull back a deficit and make it a final three in front. This was all, breathtakingly exciting racing.
What a final! Van Aert with his perfect form, van der Poel’s muscular one and Pogačar, whose new, somewhat bizarre position – he’s all the way forward and pointed down on the saddle, not very high at all, putting his powerful hips, from which flow his power, right on top of the bottom bracket. Looks like Mark Cavendish now.
Pogačar tried attacking few times before the finish, but van der Poel, on incredible form, was having none of it. Van Aert, who’d clearly suffered on the day, was the only true sprinter of the three, and won handily, for the second year in a row, to the exploding delight of the partisan finish line crowd.
Jorgenson, despite his earlier effort, rallied to finish 4th, 33-seconds behind, a superb result for the young American. Still, his Movistar DS must have read both him and 5th placed (44”) teammate, Iván García Cortina the riot act afterwards. Neither of the duo seemed willing to sacrifice for the other which lost Movistar a chance for the win.
Pogačar can hardly wait for the additional 60-kilometers of the Ronde, Van Aert is coming into form and remains the fastest of the strongmen, while van der Poel, well, the Dutchman seems to have a longer-term goal.
He has digested the almost insane levels of over-work of last year, when he rode the Giro like a mad dog, then suffered a true Calvary at the Tour, suffering a humiliating DNF on Stage 11. But there now appears to have been a plan in place, a deliberate overloading of his body, the results of which we are seeing with his almost insolent levels of strength. Van der Poel may not win on Sunday – and if he sees that he can’t, look for him to race so Van Aert can’t either - because the word on the street is that the real goal is Paris-Roubaix. A win which would go very nicely indeed alongside his Tours of Flanders and Milano-Sanremo.