Pogačar the Conquerer

We were served up a Grand Cru edition of the Tour of Flanders this year, six-hours of edge-of-your-seat action with nary a moment of calm, making one reluctant to leave the screen even for a moment so relentless was the action.

 As the tailwind-assisted race blasted south from the start in Bruges, with the small teams such as Q36.5 and Bingoal WB forcing the pace in their search for the early breakaway, both Mathieu van der Poel and Wout Van Aert, the two superstars, were noticeably tail gunning (riding at the back of the peloton) in an attitude of nonchalant confidence. Suddenly, with 236-k to go, as the race exited yet another twisting, cobbled village road, the race direction changed to west, the tail wind now blowing from the side, creating perfect conditions for an echelon attack. Bahrain-Victorius pounced, roaring down the left side of the road, flattening the peloton into one, 54-kph sidewind line; gaps began to open.

 Van Aert made it back to safety by the hair on his chinny-chin-chin. Van der Poel didn’t and the first major drama of this emotionally draining race began. The Dutchman’s group, which included Peter Sagan – riding a difficult farewell Ronde – and Biniam Girmay, rapidly lost time on the front, the gap ballooning to 42”. VdP’s key teammates, Silvian Dillier and Søren Kragh Andersen, absolutely buried themselves, finally closing the gap after 20-kilometers of massive effort. Both were much diminished afterwards, leaving Van der Poel isolated for the crucial parts of the race to come.

 A crash, a gap, now the sight of a chasing Tadej Pogačar, 29” down, led by two UAE teammates, while the race continued to set a record pace, almost 100 kilometers covered in the first two-hours. At the front of the long, single-line peloton, the racers were still probing, especially the impressive-looking Guillaume Van Keirsbulk, resplendent in his beard, all 6’3” of him racing off the front for all he was worth, succeeding as (finally!), with 166-k to go, the break of the day was formed including: Jasper De Buyst (Lotto-Dstny), Daan Hoole (Trek-Segafredo), Elmar Reinders (Jayco-ALUla), Filippo Colombo (Q36.5), and Van Keirsbulk.

 Belgian Pro Champ Tim Merlier (Soudal-QS) and 6’5” German Jonas Rauch (EF-Education Easy Post) bridged, followed, in a late, long, and powerful effort, by that most popular Quebecois, Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech), making eight men in front. The peloton adjourned, sat up and took a breath for the battle to come. The break quickly gained over four-minutes.

 The peloton awakened as they approached the first of the famed cobbled climbs, the Oude Kwaremont, when, four-kilometers from the base, the most bizzarro crash ever occurred: young Pole Filip Maciejuk of Bahrain-Victorious came racing up the side of the peloton on a sidewalk that, unfortunately, ended in a deep ditch which he entered at speed, throwing him “like a bowling ball” across the front of the charging peloton, knocking them down like the proverbial pins. Tim Wellens (UAE) was out, Sagan too, with Julian Alaphilippe looking damaged. Maciejuk was immediately pulled from the race, as much for his own safety as for his violation of the “Too Stupid” rule. The peloton rode up that first climb at ‘tourista’ speed, allowing the delayed and wounded to return to the fold; the break now had 5’21” with 132-k to go.

 The next bizzarro moment came on the second climb, the Kortekeer, when Team DSM blocked the path and rode up the climb at the slowest speed possible causing riders behind to put foot-to-ground and fall into one another. DSM then accelerated over the top, stretching out the field but to no real avail except to insure they would be universally and forever hated by the peloton. It seemed like a tactic a sponsor would invent and impose.

 The Wolvenberg climb came with 114-K to go and here the race became even more interesting as a very strong group separated themselves from the field, featuring USA’s Neilson Powless (EF-Education), Old Fox Matteo Trentin (UAE), Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos), Fred Wright (Bahrain), Switzerland’s King Küng (Groupama), 2019 World Champion Mads Pedersen, Nathan van Hooydonck (Jumbo-Visma) and the man who, after eight-months of battling knee issues and fatigue returned to rip the other six from the field, Denmark’s Kasper Asgreen. Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R-Citroën) and, to the delight of the American viewing public, Movistar’s Matteo Jorgenson bridged, making two Yanks in front.

 Crashes, general exhaustion, all and everything a race could offer up was seen over the next 70-kilometers, until the second approach to the Oude Kwaramont, at 2.2-k the longest of the Flemish climbs and the place where everyone expected Tadej Pogačar to make his move. The UAE, warp-speed entry into the climb launched Pogačar who went up it so fast that it was stunning to watch. Behind, a brave Magnus Sheffield held his Ineos leader Tom Pidcock in contention, as Mathieu van der Poel, Van Aert with an excellent Christophe Laporte pulled, definitively, away from the peloton.

 Pogačar stayed alone in front until the next obstacle, Belgium’s ‘Field of Dreams’, the Paterberg, short and vicious, a formerly abandoned farm road that a prescient mayor in the 1980’s restored with pavé in the hopes that one day the ‘Ronde’ would grace its slopes. Laporte bridged to the Slovenian, the Jumbo-Visma team game unfolding to perfection with Pidcock and van der Poel forced to chase.

 The junction between the groups was made at the base of the famed Koppenberg climb, with 45-k to go, where Pogačar accelerated – of course, what else would one do? – and the big three, van der Poel, Van Aert and Pogačar were gone. The trio sliced through the fading riders of the early break, picking up and discarding them in turn. Tadej Pogačar forced on the next two climbs, putting the two cyclocross stars into difficulty yet not cracking them.

 Then, in a real plot twist, on the third-to-last Kruisberg, van der Poel, sensing frenemy Van Aert’s discomfort, launched so hard on the climb that even Tadej struggled to hold on. Now they were two. Yet, there was still action in front (remember, there’s been a breakaway up there) as Mads Pedersen had gone alone with 22-k to go. VdP and Pogačar caught the front break, where Old Fox Trentin had been waiting, who then pulled hard to the base of the Oude Kwaremont (third time up it), ensuring that Van Aert and Laport (who had caught his leader) would stay out of contention.

 Pedersen was already on the climb, 30” ahead, when Pogačar turned on the turbo. The Slovenian wunderkind went so fast up that climb, that he ate Pedersen’s 30” in no time, taking 15” out of Poggio record holder van der Poel. And that was that. Pogačar rode alone to victory, van der Poel – who had dumped Perdersen – held the Slovenian at 15” all the way to the finish. Pedersen, caught by the Van Aert group, showed exactly why he’d been a World Champion, by winning the sprint for third, even after all his solo efforts.

 Tadej Pogačar entered history, joining Eddy Merckx and Louison Bobet as the only racers to have won both the Tour de France and the Tour of Flanders. Neilson Powless was fifth, Matteo Jorgenson ninth giving American cycling a real moment of cheer. And little Alphonse, whose parents have been keeping him away from the finishes of late, on his father’s shoulders near the top of the Paterberg, screaming and yelling to his heart’s delight, reveling in the raw emotion of true racing, joining in with the overwhelming roar of the crowd as the Tour de France winner honored their race and its traditions in the very best manner possible, the boy had a day he would never ever forget, insuring many future generations of Flemish Cycling fans to come.