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Tadej Pogacar wins 2023 Tour of Flanders after late attack on Oude Kwaremont, Lotte Kopecky doubles up in women's race – Ronde van Vlaanderen 2023 results

The Slovenian becomes the third man to complete Tour de France-Tour of Flanders double, and just the second racer after legendary Eddy Merckx to win three different Monument Classics before the age of 25. In the women's race, Lotte Kopecky won her second consecutive Ronde in front of her home fans.

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Tadej Pogacar cycled his way to a famous win at the 2023 Tour of Flanders (Ronde van Vlaanderen) on Sunday (2 April) after a late attack from the Slovenian distanced his rivals on the Oude Kwaremont.

Pogacar, one of the pre-race favourites alongside the likes of two-time winner Mathieu van der Poel , made his move on the penultimate climb of the 273.4km (169.9mi) men's race to leave his opponents in his wake.

The Slovenian, a two-time winner of the Tour de France, then extended his lead to 15 seconds on the final ascent of the Paterberg before putting more time between him and van der Poel to as much as 30 seconds on the final flat 13km run-in to the line.

Dominant Pogacar makes more history in men's race

Pogacar rode solo after dropping Mads Pedersen , one of the early breakaway riders, on the Oude Kwaremont and never looked back, finishing 17 seconds ahead of Dutchman Van der Poel.

Pedersen hung on to win a sprint for third in a chase group of seven riders.

Pogacar is only the second man to win three different Monuments before the age of 25, joining the legendary Eddy Merckx . Pogacar has also won Il Lombardia and Liège–Bastogne in his career. Alongside Merckx and Louison Bobet , Pogacar is also just the third cyclist to win both the Tour de France and De Ronde.

The Slovenian is the 83rd different winner of De Ronde in the race's history.

"Amazing teamwork, today was a day I will never forget," Pogacar said in his post-race remarks. "I knew that to go long, I need to go on (Oude) Kwaremont the last time. I almost cracked on Paterberg and I knew then it's gonna be tough, but it was the only way to go to the finish.

"I can say I could retire after today and I would be proud of my career, just super happy and proud. We have (Milano)–Sanremo and (Paris)–Roubaix to go (of the five Monuments), so I keep it in reserve for sure. I think I need to gain a few kilos for Roubaix and toughen my hands for the cobbles, we'll see for the future."

Asked if the season would be considered a success even if he misses out on winning the Tour de France, Pogacar added: "I think yes."

Men's 2023 Ronde van Vlaanderen – Tour des Flandres – Tour of Flanders - result

• Tadej Pogacar (SLO / UAE Team Emirates) 6:12:07
• Mathieu van der Poel (NED / Alpecin-Fenix) +00:16
• Mads Pedersen (DEN / Trek-Segafredo) +01:12
• Wout van Aert (BEL / Jumbo-Visma) same time
• Neilson Powless (USA / EF Education-EasyPost) s.t.
• Stefan Küng (SUI / Groupama-FDJ) s.t.
• Kasper Asgreen (DEN / Soudal-Quick-Step) s.t.
• Fred Wright (GBR / Bahrain Victorious) s.t.

Kopecky solos to repeat win in women's race

The women's race was dominated by  Team SD Worx , who put four riders into the lead group and maintained their position with about 45km to the line.

Lorena Wiebes and Marlen Reusser both ended up dropping back, leaving their leader and defending champion  Lotte Kopecky to make her move on the Oude Kwaremont.

Kopecky distanced Italy's  Silvia Perisco before the cobbled climb up the Oude Kwaremont, then rode away, extending her gap on the Paterberg.

With no-one around her, the Belgian could let up in the final metres to soak in the cheers of the home fans as she became just the second back-to-back winner of the Ronde van Vlaanderen women's race after Mirjam Melchers (2005–06).

Her teammate  Demi Vollering won the sprint for second, while Italy's  Elisa Longo Borghini of Trek-Segafredo came third.

"It's very special, everybody on social media was giving me 5 stars for this race so there was pressure. It's amazing how with the whole team we won the race," Kopecky said afterwards.

She added of the vital moment the race exploded on the climb of Koppenberg: "I thought it was dry, but a part of it was wet and there was no grip so I had to get off my bike and run," 

One of the other pre-race favourites,  Annemiek van Vleuten of Movistar Team, was caught in a crash with 50km to the finish and was forced into a bike change, dropping her off the back.

Women's 2023 Ronde van Vlaanderen – Tour des Flandres – Tour of Flanders - result

• Lotte Kopecky (BEL / Team SD Worx) 4:06:09
• Demi Vollering (NED / Team SD Worx) +00:36
• Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA / Trek-Segafredo) same time
• Silvia Perisco (ITA / UAE Team ADQ) s.t.
• Katarzyna Niewiadoma (POL / Canyon-SRAM Racing) s.t.
• Juliette Labous (FRA / Team DSM) s.t.
• Marlen Reusser (SUI / Team SD Worx) s.t.
• Shirin van Anrooij (NED / Trek-Segafredo) +00:44

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Pogacar wins tour of flanders for first time, van der poel second.

OUDENAARDE, BELGIUM - APRIL 02: Stefan Küng of Switzerland and Team Groupama-FDJ competes during the 107th Ronde van Vlaanderen - Tour des Flandres 2023, Men’s Elite a 273.4km one day race from Brugge to Oudenaarde / #UCIWT / on April 02, 2023 in Brugge, Belgium. (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

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AUDENARDE, Belgium - Two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar joked that he could now retire happy from cycling after winning the Tour of Flanders classic for the first time.

Pogacar, who won the showcase Tour in 2020 and 2021, became only the third cyclist to win both races after Frenchman Louison Bobet and Belgian great Eddy Merckx.

The 24-year-old Slovenian clinched victory with a superb solo attack to add Flanders - one of the five “monument races” in one-day cycling - to his glittering list of wins.

“I can say that I can retire after today and I can be proud of my career,” Pogacar said, smiling. “I can be super happy and proud.”

Pogacar dropped Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel about 18 kilometers from the end of the 273.4-kilometer (169.5-mile) trek from Bruges to Audenarde and beat him by 16 seconds.

Dane Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) was third, ahead of Belgian Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) in fourth spot - both 1:12 behind Pogacar.

Called “Ronde van Vlaanderen” in Dutch, the Flanders race is renowned for having narrow short hills and cobbles.

Sunday’s cold and humid weather contributed to several crashes. Polish rider Filip Maciejuk was disqualified after swerving into the peloton and sparking a mass crash that took out 2016 champion Peter Sagan in his final Flanders.

“I’m really sorry for my mistake and causing the crash today. I hope all those involved are in good health,” Maciejuk wrote on Twitter. “This should not happen and was a big error in my judgment.”

The pace was quick throughout.

“With the speed on the cobbles I was already suffering,” said Pogacar, who races for UAE Team Emirates.

Sunday’s victory was his third monument win, after winning Liège–Bastogne–Liège in Belgium in 2021 and the Giro di Lombardia (Tour of Lombardy) in Italy for the past two years.

The two he has yet to win are Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, which has even tougher cobbles than Flanders and is being held on April 9. n der Poel won Milan-San Remo this year with Pogacar finishing in fourth place.

“San Remo is the most difficult one (of the five monuments), I arrived there in good shape this year,” said Pogacar, who won the Paris-Nice stage race this year.

He is uncertain whether he is bulky enough to take on Roubaix, which is known as “L’Enfer du Nord” (The Hell of the North).

“I think I need to gain a few kilos for Roubaix,” Pogacar said. “Toughen my hands for the cobbles.”

Filip Maciejuk apologises for huge crash as Tadej Pogačar wins first Tour of Flanders

By Simon Smale

Topic: Cycle Sport

Tadej Pogačar claimed his third different monument victory.  ( Getty Images: Tim de Waele )

Tadej Pogačar has won the 107th Tour of Flanders, underlining his status as one of this generation's premier road cyclists.

The 2020 and 2021 Tour de France champion survived a number of huge crashes that saw several riders abandon with injuries.

Despite getting caught up in the carnage, Pogačar kept himself injury-free and rode away from his two big rivals, Dutch two-time champion Mathieu van der Poel and Belgian Wout van Aert, soloing to victory with 17 kilometres to go on the gruelling 273km race through northern Belgium.

The Slovenian rider finished the race in six hours, 12 minutes and one second, 17 seconds ahead of an exhausted van der Poel.

Danish rider Mads Pederson just pipped van Aert in the sprint for third, a minute and 13 seconds behind. 

"I knew that to go solo I needed to go on the Kwaremont the last time, I just gave it all," Pogačar said after the race.

"I knew that it was going to be tough but it was the only way to go to the finish."

This was Pogačar's 16th day of racing in 2023 and saw the Slovenian claim his tenth victory.

Those Eddie Merckx-like stats are oddly prescient. 

Only two men have ever won the Tour de France and the one-day Tour of Flanders: French legend Louison Bobet in 1955 and the Belgian legend Merckx, who won his second Tour of Flanders in 1975.

Tadej Pogačar said he almost cracked on the Paterberg. ( Getty Images: Tim de Waele )

The two-time Tour de France champion and grand tour specialist now has won three of the five one-day monuments and, at just 24 years old, still has plenty more racing to come in his career, including regaining his Tour de France title later in the year.

"I think he was unbeatable today," van der Poel said of Pogačar, who added that it was probably his best ever performance in "the Ronde" but he just didn't have enough to go with his younger rival.

The Tour of Flanders had been hyped as a battle between three of cycling's most complete riders: Pogačar (24 years old), van der Poel (28) and van Aert (28).

They did not disappoint.

The crowds came out in force to support the riders. ( Getty Images: Tim de Waele )

This trio have been going at each other, hammer and tongs, since the start of the year, serving up some superb racing at one-day races across Europe.

Van der Poel claimed victory in the first monument of the year at Milan-San Remo, while van Aert won the E3 Saxo Classic.

It took the trio a while to come together in earnest, but Pogačar attacked on the Kwaremont climb with just over 50km to go.

A further acceleration on the Koppenberg broke the rest of the chasers and set up his 17km solo effort.

Pogačar said he could already consider his season a success, even joking that he can retire and be proud of his career.

He added that he would not rule out challenging for the two monuments missing from his collection — Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo — later in his career.

Rapid pace, crashes mar first half of race

Crashes throughout the race took their toll. ( Getty Images: Pool/Jan de Meuleneir )

A rapid opening hour — the fastest ever by almost 5km per hour — ensured that no breakaway could form due to the helter-skelter nature of the peloton.

The race was typified by a number of big crashes, with almost every team affected by some brutal shunts.

Cross winds caused an early split that had van der Poel in the second group, before a crash saw Pogačar caught out and forced into chasing back on.

That crash saw Dutch rider Danny van Poppel abandon but was far from the worst as the peloton became jittery as they approached the major obstacles of cobbles, vertiginous climbs and combination of the two that characterise the historic Flemish monument.

Polish rider for Bahrain Victorious, Filip Maciejuk, caused the biggest pile up though, after he was caught wide of the peloton. With the paved area of the road coming to an end, he was forced through the grass, where a puddle of water careered his bike back into the middle of the road, and into the peloton at full pace.

Several riders went down and a number were forced to abandon with their injuries.

Maciejuk was subsequently disqualified from the race and issued an apology on twitter in which he described his move as "a big error" in judgement.

"I'm really sorry for my mistake and causing the crash today. I hope all those involved are in good health," Maciejuk wrote.

"This should not happen and was a big error in my judgement."

Former pro-cyclist Mark Renshaw said the crash was difficult to watch.

"Hurts to watch huge crashes likes this, Filip Maciejuk deserves being thrown out of the race," he wrote.

"I'd give him a couple of extra weeks out to think about that move and hopefully prevent other young riders doing the same."

In a separate incident, Eritrean outside bet Biniam Girmay also came down hard in a crash as the race took its toll.

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Pogacar wins Tour of Flanders for first time, Van der Poel second

AUDENARDE, Belgium – Two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar joked that he could now retire happy from cycling after winning the Tour of Flanders classic for the first time.

Pogacar, who won the showcase Tour in 2020 and 2021, became only the third cyclist to win both races after Frenchman Louison Bobet and Belgian great Eddy Merckx.

The 24-year-old Slovenian clinched victory with a superb solo attack to add Flanders – one of the five “monument races” in one-day cycling – to his glittering list of wins.

“I can say that I can retire after today and I can be proud of my career,” Pogacar said, smiling. “I can be super happy and proud.”

Pogacar dropped Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel about 18 kilometers from the end of the 273.4-kilometer (169.5-mile) trek from Bruges to Audenarde and beat him by 16 seconds.

Dane Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) was third, ahead of Belgian Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) in fourth spot – both 1:12 behind Pogacar.

Called “Ronde van Vlaanderen” in Dutch, the Flanders race is renowned for having narrow short hills and cobbles.

Sunday’s cold and humid weather contributed to several crashes. Polish rider Filip Maciejuk was disqualified after swerving into the peloton and sparking a mass crash that took out 2016 champion Peter Sagan in his final Flanders.

“I’m really sorry for my mistake and causing the crash today. I hope all those involved are in good health,” Maciejuk wrote on Twitter. “This should not happen and was a big error in my judgment.”

The pace was quick throughout.

“With the speed on the cobbles I was already suffering,” said Pogacar, who races for UAE Team Emirates.

Sunday’s victory was his third monument win, after winning Liège–Bastogne–Liège in Belgium in 2021 and the Giro di Lombardia (Tour of Lombardy) in Italy for the past two years.

The two he has yet to win are Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, which has even tougher cobbles than Flanders and is being held on April 9. n der Poel won Milan-San Remo this year with Pogacar finishing in fourth place.

“San Remo is the most difficult one (of the five monuments), I arrived there in good shape this year,” said Pogacar, who won the Paris-Nice stage race this year.

He is uncertain whether he is bulky enough to take on Roubaix, which is known as “L’Enfer du Nord” (The Hell of the North).

“I think I need to gain a few kilos for Roubaix,” Pogacar said. “Toughen my hands for the cobbles.”

Pogacar wins Tour of Flanders for first time, Van der Poel second originally appeared on NBCSports.com

Tour of Flanders 2023: Pogacar solos to triumph

Results 2023 Tour of Flanders

1. Tadej Pogacar (slo) 2. Mathieu van der Poel (nld) + 0.16 3. Mads Pedersen (den) + 1.12 4. Wout van Aert (bel) s.t. 5. Neilson Powless (usa) s.t. 6. Stefan Küng (swi) s.t. 7. Kasper Asgreen (den) s.t. 8. Fred Wright (gbr) s.t. 9. Matteo Jorgenson (usa) + 1.19 10. Matteo Trentin (ita) + 2.49

Race report The pace is high from the start. There is still no breakaway after almost 40 kilometres of action and then the peloton splits. Van der Poel, Madouas, Teuns, Vanmarcke, Matthews and Girmay are forced to restore the damage in a 20 kilometres chase.

One of the other hot favourites, Pogacar, if forced to chase a little later with Pedersen, Matthews and Vanmarcke. They rejoin the first group in a relatively short effort.

After two hours in the saddle – and 100 kilometres – Van Keirsbulck establish the breakaway with Hoole, Colombo, Reynders and De Buyst. Merlier, Rutsch and Houle track them down.

A crazy move by Maciejuk causes a massive crash in the peloton. Turner and Wellens can’t continue the race, while the peloton slows down and the eight race to a 6 minutes lead.

The gap has fallen to 2 minutes on the Molenberg. Trentin, Küng, Asgreen, Wright, Powless, Narváez, Wright and Van Hooydonck distance the peloton after the summit, while Pedersen and Vermeersch bridge across later. Jorgenson and Cosnefroy go after them on the Berendries and track them down on the flat. The twelve rejoin the lead group on Berg Ten Houte and they open up a 3 minutes lead.

Pogacar strikes in the second ascent of the Oude Kwaremont. He reaches the summit of the Paterberg 1.39 minutes behind the remains of the lead group. Laporte, Van Aert, Pidcock and Van der Poel are 13 seconds behind.

Laporte kicks to rejoin Pogacar before the others also bridge across.

Pogacar speeds up on the Koppenberg. Van der Poel and Van Aert follow the move and the trio reaches the summit 1 minute behind the lead group. The gap is down to 35 seconds on the Taaienberg.

Pedersen attacks from the remaining leaders – Van Hooydonck, Trentin, Vermeersch, Asgreen, Powless, Wright, Jorgenson, Küng – in the run-up to the Kruisberg. Van der Poel attacks in the climb from the chase group. Pogacar follows his move.

The two regain contact with the group Asgreen before the Oude Kwaremont. Pogacar tracks down Pedersen in the climb to continue on his own. Van der Poel reaches the summit with Pedersen, only to leave him behind.

Pogacar crests the Paterberg 12 seconds ahead of Van der Poel. Pedersen is 40 seconds in arrears before the chasers rejoin the Dane.

The double Tour de France winner takes the win ahead of double Tour of Flanders winner Van der Poel, while former World Champion outsprints Van Aert for the remaining podium spot.

Other interesting reads: route and start list 2023 Tour of Flanders.

Tour of Flanders 2023: route, profiles, more

Click on the images to zoom

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Tadej Pogačar uploads Tour of Flanders win to Strava... gets flagged

Clearly the wall-to-wall TV coverage detailing every pedal stroke of  Tadej Pogačar's history-making Tour of Flanders success was not enough proof,  because his Strava activity — including an obliteration of the Oude Kwaremont KOM — has been flagged.

To our delight Pogačar uploaded his activity to the ride-sharing app for us to stare longingly in disbelief at the stats, the most eye-catching of which was his second ascent of the Oude Kwaremont, the one that distanced the entire peloton and had Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert scrambling, and saw him become the first man to go sub-four minutes up the 2.15km segment.

That effort was 11 seconds faster than the previous best, set by Kasper Asgreen during last year's race and 14 seconds faster than Van Aert's ascent at the same point in the race yesterday.

The 24-year-old's decisive attack on the final ascent of the Kwaremont was also the fifth fastest time ever set, not bad for someone with a KOM and nearly 260km already in the legs.

And the Strava times back up the TV visuals, showing it was the long (for Flanders), shallower slopes of the Kwaremont where Pogačar showed his class, his 17km/h ascents of the Paterberg fast for you or me, but not even in the top 700 fastest times for the 300m-long segment where unsurprisingly the quickest times are not set by those in their sixth hour of Monument racing.

Likewise on the Koppenberg, Pogačar's 1:55 was two seconds slower than the chase of Van Aert behind and would be joint 13th on the leaderboard had it not been flagged.

> I lost my Strava KOM to someone who 'cycled' from London to Newcastle in six hours

On the stats front, the UAE Team Emirates superstar, who now has four Monument wins by the age of 24 and just needs to win Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix to complete the set, covered the extra long 270km Flanders distance in a little over six hours, at an average speed of 44.2km/h.

His max speed hit 86.6km/h and Strava estimates Pogačar burned 6,050 calories. The win came hours after the Gen Z representative had caused something of a meltdown online after replying to Twitter memes just 15 minutes before the race was due to start .

Pogačar replied to a tweet about riders who have won one-day races in which both Van Aert and Van der Poel have started, something which at 9.43 in the morning he had not yet achieved. 

"Motivation for today," the two-time Tour de France winner wrote. A little over six hours later he joined the club...

A quick update from the future... Thankfully the powers that be at Strava have deemed Pogačar's ride to be legitimate, restoring his leaderboard-shattering Kwaremont KOM and the rest of his mind-boggling segment times. Give the man some kudos...

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Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.

Add new comment

might have been wada flagging it

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Classic Strava, meanwhile every muppet on an e-bike and plenty seemingly in cars dominate the leader boards around me. I've given up on it. 

"the UAE Team Emirates superstar, who now has four Monument wins by the age of 24 and just needs to win Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix to complete the set"

The word 'just' is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. It's on his radar though.

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Tour of Flanders conquered by Tadej Pogacar, victorious with monumental with solo effort

Tadej Pogacar has delivered. The UAE Team Emirates is the new winner of the Tour of Flanders after an epic race and a decisive attack at the Oude Kwaremont. Mathieu van der Poel and Mads Pedersen completed the podium.

The day has seen plenty action right from the start. With strong winds and a lot of planning ahead, many teams tried to get riders in the breakaway including some of the main teams. This led to a battle that took longer than an hour to be resolved. Tim Merlier (Soudal - Quick-Step), Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Bingoal WB), Jasper De Buyst (Lotto Dstny), Hugo Houle (Israel - Premier Tech), Filippo Colombo (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Daan Hoole (Trek - Segafredo), Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-EasyPost) and Elmar Reinders (Team Jayco AlUla) formed the day's breakaway.

Prize Money Tour of Flanders men's and women's - €20.000 for winners

With 143 kilometers to go, after some minor tumbles, Filip Maciejuk lost control of the bike at the head of the peloton and caused a mass crash that took out Tim Wellens from the race, Wout van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe went down before the Oude Kwaremont. Afterwards the race stabilized, but not for long. Team DSM conducted a collective attack on one of the many ascents, but the temporary gaps were then closed.

With just under 100 kilometers to go, after several moves, Kasper Asgreen attacked the race and formed a strong group, which saw several riders bridging across. Asgreen, Neilson Powless, Mads Pedersen, Stefan Küng, Nathan van Hooydonck, Florian Vermeersch, Matteo Trentin, Fred Wright and Jhonatan Narváez got a gap, a very strong group that saw it's gap grow to almost two minutes as torn down Alpecin-Deceuninck and UAE Team Emirates looked to control the gaps despite missing Kragh Andersen and Wellens in pursuit.

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Another mass crash saw Matej Mohoric and Biniam Girmay among others abandon the race. Heading into the second climb of the Oude Kwaremont the peloton broke as Tadej Pogacar launched an attack and got a gap over his rivals. Pogacar kept a high pace through the Paterberg but the gap was then closed by van der Poel, van Aert, Laporte and Pidcock.

At the Koppenberg the group was reduced to three however as Pogacar launched an acceleration and was only followed by van Aert and van der Poel, as the gap became less than a minute over the leading group which featured several strong riders. The trio worked together to slowly bring down the gap, but at the Kruisberg an attack by van der Poel saw only Pogacar following. Van Aert cracked, but then had van Hooydonck from the front group wait for him, as the duo bridged across to the final survivors of the leading group.

Mads Pedersen had attacked before the Kruisberg and was now leading the race alone. At the Oude Kwaremont for the final time Pogacar attacked once again comfortably dropping the rest of the chase group, bridging across and dropping the Dane still within the sector as Mathieu van der Poel put on a chase.

Filip Maciejuk on Tour of Flanders crash: "This should not happen and was a big error in my judgement"

The gaps were created and they could not be cut further. Pogacar kept extending it throughout the following kilometers as Mathieu van der Poel was the only rider who could put on a chase. The Slovenian took a glorious win however, taking his fourth monument in what is still a short career. Mathieu van der Poel crossed the line in second place, a strong performance but no doubt one with some disappointment.

The chasing group sprinted for third place, and here Mads Pedersen managed to barely beat Wout van Aert to close out the podium.

Video: Bahrain - Victorious rider causes mass crash at Tour of Flanders. Alaphilippe, Wellens, Stuyven and Sagan among affected

Video: yet another big crash takes biniam girmay and matej mohoric out of tour of flanders.

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Tadej Pogačar eyes Monument collection after superb Tour of Flanders win

The Slovenian joked that he could walk away from cycling a happy man after winning De Ronde

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Tadej Pogačar has set his sight on completing an historic clean sweep of cycling’s five Monuments, after winning his third on Sunday at the Tour of Flanders.

The Slovenian superstar continued his extraordinary form, attacking on the Kwaremont with 17km to go and holding onto to win in Oudenaarde ahead of Mathieu van der Poel.

Victory means that the 24 year old has now won three of cycling’s most prestigious one-day races, having previously triumphed at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and twice at Il Lombardia.

The UAE-Team Emirates rider now needs to win both Paris-Roubaix and Milan-Sanremo to become just the fourth man after Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck to win all five races.

Speaking after his outstanding win in Flanders, Pogačar referenced the record: “We will not give up. We leave it in reserve. I think I have to gain some kilos for Roubaix and gain strength in my hands. We saw in Sanremo it is the most difficult, [but] this year I have been in one of my best forms of my life,” the two-time Tour de France champion said.

Despite being caught behind a crash early on in the race that meant his team had to work hard to regain touch with the peloton, Pogačar was imperious during De Ronde and joked that he could leave cycling a happy man following victory. “I could retire after today and I would be very proud of my career. I can be happy and proud. It was an incredible job by the team today. A day I will never forget," he said.

Discussing his race-winning move, he reflected: “We were coming with speed onto the cobbles, really suffering, so the entry into the climb [of the Kwaremont] is all about giving it all the power to the top. It’s very long to the top so it’s my favourite [berg].

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“I knew I just had to go on the Kwaremont. I gave everything, and then I almost did crack on the Paterberg. I knew it was going to be hard, but it was the only option for me.”

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A freelance sports journalist and podcaster, you'll mostly find Chris's byline attached to news scoops, profile interviews and long reads across a variety of different publications. He has been writing regularly for Cycling Weekly since 2013. In 2024 he released a seven-part podcast documentary, Ghost in the Machine , about motor doping in cycling.

Previously a ski, hiking and cycling guide in the Canadian Rockies and Spanish Pyrenees, he almost certainly holds the record for the most number of interviews conducted from snowy mountains. He lives in Valencia, Spain.

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Tour of Flanders 2024: When is it? Who is riding? Is Tadej Pogacar riding? What is the route? How to watch on discovery+

Updated 28/03/2024 at 09:28 GMT

When is the Tour of Flanders 2024? Who is riding? Are Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel riding? What is the route? How to watch on discovery+. Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) won the race in 2023, and there is expected to be plenty of competition to be crowned champion this time around. You can watch all of the action from the Tour of Flanders live on discovery+.

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Cancellara's Classics Column: Tadej Pogacar turns Tour of Flanders into watts-per-kilo game

Chapeau, Tadej Pogačar. That was something special

I wrote before the Tour of Flanders that if Pogacar could drop Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert then it would be something huge. And he did it. What he achieved today, the way he rode, will go down in history. 

For Tadej, the harder it gets, the easier it gets. What I mean by that is, when it's a hard race, the strength of the strongest rider will show, and the others will blow earlier. The better you are, the less you have to worry. If you are tired, the others are more tired. Mentally, you need to be strong, but the harder it is for everyone, the easier it gets for you. 

This Tour of Flanders was just hard all the time. It was a crazy race, right from the start - even before the start, with the terrible weather in the last days. Then you do the first 100km in two hours and everyone is on the limit when they should be letting a breakaway go. 

The wind was stronger than expected and that had an influence. It looked so nervous in the bunch, and the first part of the race was just a crash festival. The first hours were just so intense, and this definitely has an impact later on, especially when you're racing for 274km - longer than usual for a Tour of Flanders. 

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The second thing is that once the race is already hard, Tadej makes it harder by accelerating from the bottom to the top of every key climb. This is a Tour de France winner and he needs to use every single inch of uphill to his advantage, to turn it into a watts-per-kilo game as much as possible. The Oude Kwaremont is the prime example - the longest climb in the race. They did it three times and there was barely a cobblestone on which he wasn't attacking. 

I definitely expected Tadej to go full gas from the bottom to the top to drop everybody on the last lap, but I didn't expect him to go straight away on the second time up. Given the situation of the race, he sort of had to. 

That dangerous big group had gone away and gained three minutes. I thought 'surely it's not over'. I actually said out loud, 'no, it cannot be over'. Then UAE moved up and went full gas on the Kwaremont, the race explodes, and Tadej is gone. When Laporte joined him, the race looked super interesting - he was on the front foot but it was a gamble.

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In the end, it comes back and Tadej still does the forcing on Koppenberg, Wout drops on Kruisberg, Mathieu drops on Kwaremont, and it's over. What more can you say? There is simply no argument that the strongest guy won the race. He is the deserving winner of the Tour of Flanders. 

Wout van Aert was the most disappointing of the so-called 'Big Three'. In my opinion, the best team today in how they rode were Jumbo-Visma. The only thing was that in the end, Wout could not finish it off. Putting Nathan Van Hooydonck up the road and not working was a nice move, then sending Christophe Laporte up to Tadej after the first Kwaremont was even better. At that point in the race, Mathieu was forced into defence mode. 

But I don't know what went wrong. I saw Wout riding a lot at the back, even at the start. Riding at the back with that wind and that craziness, I don't know if this was a good idea. Maybe it's the wrong karma. To win a bike race, you need to have the legs but I also believe in karma, I believe in searching your luck in the front. 

For Wout, the wait goes on, but I still believe he will win the Tour of Flanders. Next year he will be 29 - the same age that I won it for the first time. 

As for Mathieu, I don't know how much he was playing today. There were a couple of times when he was a bit dropped - once when he had a chain problem on the Taaienberg and another time when he didn't look as strong as he turned out to be when he dropped Wout on the Kruisberg. The first time up the Kwaremont, or even on the Koppenberg, I don't know if was it was playing - to make people wonder if he's not feeling good - or if it was on purpose. In the end, the attack he did on Kruisberg was quite impressive. I think he surprised everyone there, for sure. Wout was certainly caught off guard and so was Tadej. With the legs he had, he would not have had to close any gap if he had been expecting that acceleration for Mathieu. 

Perhaps Mathieu ultimately paid for this effort on the Kwaremont, but then again, he probably needed to do it, because they needed to catch those guys out in front. I thought he rode a good race but in the end, he was beaten by a better rider on the day. 

As for the rest, I was curious to see who would go in the early moves. Well, it turns out a lot of them. Realistically, anticipation was the only way to stand a chance out there, and lots of riders set out with the same battle plan. The guys in that front group emptied themselves and can all walk away with their heads held high. People questioned the possibility of beating the Big Three, but we were not so far away from that. 

A special mention for Mads Pedersen . The way he rode, the guy deserved to be on the podium because he dared and he tried. Of course, he paid for that effort, but he was the guy who took the risk, so it's a deserving guy up there on the podium with Tadej and Mathieu. 

A footnote, that was quite a special move from DSM, going so slow on the Kortekeer and then sprinting. Nice try, but in the end I saw no DSM at all in the front. 

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Fabian Cancellara is an ex-professional cyclist who raced from 2001 to 2016 for Mapei, Fassa Bortolo, CSC and Trek. One of a select trio of riders to have won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders three times, alongside arch rival Tom Boonen and Johan Museeuw, he is the only racer who can add the Strade Bianche triple to that glittering statistic – first across the line in Siena at four year intervals between 2008 and 2016."Spartacus" was also a formidable time trialist: four times world champion, twice Olympic champion,  his final race as a professional cyclist came in the TT at the Rio Olympics in 2016, where he triumphed over second-placed Tom Dumoulin by a staggering 47 seconds. Alongside various business interests – and being a  Cyclingnews columnist, of course – Cancellara is a founder of the Tudor Pro Cycling team, currently racing at UCI Pro Team level.

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MVDP to hunt for mountain legs with program of low-key stage races, Euro champs ahead of underdog world title defense in Zurich.

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Can Mathieu van der Poel find the mountain legs he needs to defend his rainbow stripes from Tadej Pogačar  and Remco Evenepoel at the vertical-packed road world championships?

A roundabout race schedule will decide whether MVDP and his freshly chopped, blonde-flecked mullet can reap more rainbows at the Zurich road race at the end of next month.

Alpecin-Deceuninck revealed this week its 29-year-old topper will chase his climbing best at Belgium’s Renewi Tour and the Tour of Luxembourg via a detour at the European championships road race.

The double-denim Belgians also confirmed that Jasper Philipsen will race a series of sprinter-friendly classics ahead of a season finale at Paris-Tours.

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Van der Poel admitted Tuesday his program of Belgian bergs and Luxembourg flats may not be ideal preparation for a Zurich road race that loads 4,000m of low-altitude Alps into its punishing parcours .

“It took a bit of searching in my program,” Van der Poel said Tuesday ahead of the opening stage of the Renewi [formerly BinckBank] Tour. “I had the Vuelta a España in the back of my mind, but in the end we chose this race.

“I had hoped for more difficult stages,” he said Tuesday of the five-day race. “We’ll have to make do with it. Only Sunday looks really tough.”

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by MVDP (@mathieuvanderpoel)

Van der Poel accepts it’s a head-scratching schedule ahead of what will be a brutally bumpy world title brawl against Tour de France dominator Pogačar and Olympic obliterator Evenepoel.

But after only 29 days of road racing in 2024, it’s one Van der Poel and his entourage is backing to work.

“It’s true that the road worlds is a difficult course. But Mathieu is certainly not without a chance,” Dutch national coach Koos Moerenhout told Wielerflits .

“If Tadej Pogačar or Remco Evenepoel have a good day, then it will be difficult. But it is the world championship, they can and should be difficult,” Moerenhoot said this weekend. “The most important thing is that Mathieu starts there at his best level. And then everything is open.”

‘Glasgow was more suited to Mathieu than Pogačar. Zurich will be the other way around’

The full Dutch selection for road worlds won’t be confirmed for some time.

But no amount of mountains can deny Van der Poel a place at its orange-tinted core after he blew everybody off of his wheel and rode a broken shoe toward the stripes last year at the Glasgow “super worlds.”

“Glasgow was more suited to Mathieu than to Pogačar. In Zurich it will be the other way around,” Moerenhout told Wielerflits this weekend. “But Mathieu definitely has a chance and I am building my team around him.”

Worlds will likely mark the final stop in another wildly successful – but also somehow, disappointing – road season for Van der Poel.

He crushed all the cobbles and became the first since Fabian Cancellara in 2013 to win both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the same season.

Add to that a victory at the E3 Saxo Classic and third place in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and MVDP’s spring of 2024 was one of the greatest classics campaigns in recent memory.

A relatively low-key Tour de France and a relentlessly aggressive but ultimately fruitless ride at the Paris Olympic road race followed a few months later.

Since then, he’s been logging big miles in Calpe with Evenepoel and trimming his mullet for one last push on 2024.

A European rather than world title for Van der Poel?

One more big win would put an exclamation point on Van der Poel’s up-and-down season.

In reality, the classics-style European championships on September 15 rather than the climber-centric world road race represents Van der Poel’s best chance at a special new jersey.

Dutchmen MVDP and Olav Kooij will duke it out with a full carousel of Belgian sprinters for the chance at the Euro title on a Van der Poel-friendly course in the Belgian Limburg.

Home speedsters Wout van Aert, Jasper Philipsen, and Tim Merlier have all been selected to elbow at Van der Poel and Kooij’s flanks in the chase for the blue-striped European top.

And if Van der Poel doesn’t pad out his huge palmarès this September at the Euros or worlds?

The enduring lure of cyclocross is only around the corner.

“I’m not thinking about ‘cross yet,” Van der Poel said Tuesday. “Will I go ‘cross this winter? No idea.

“That’s also still a question mark for me at the moment,” he admitted. “I don’t know myself yet.”

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Pogacar's business manager confesses that Pogacar has two stage races at the top of his checklist

2024 is most definitely the year of Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian from UAE Team Emirates won every race he entered this year, with Milan-Sanremo being the only exception. The Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tour of Catalonia: Pogi checked off all of them this year. His business manager, Alex Carera, tells Cycling Today that the Slovenian wants to tick off many more soon.

"I never interfere with race decisions, but Tadej sometimes asks me what I think about this or that," the Italian cycling agent begins. "I can tell you that he sets a new goal or challenge every year. Two years ago, it was the Tour of Flanders; this year, it was the Giro d'Italia, and in that trend, I know he wants to do two more races."

"The first is the Tour Down Under because he rode it once before but failed to win it then. The second is the Vuelta a España," Carera exposed Pogacar's goals. The 2019 Tour Down Under was the Slovenian's first professional race, where he finished 13th in the GC. In the Vuelta that same year, he finished third, with the white jersey and three stage wins.

Read more below the photo .

"Pogacar raced in Catalonia because he had not yet won in Spain"

"Do you want to know why he participated in the Tour of Catalonia this year?" the Italian himself asks. "Because he had never won a multi-day WorldTour race in Spain. He had previously ridden the Tour of the Basque Country but didn't win. Pogacar had already finished third in the Vuelta a España, but after the Giro and Tour, that was not an option this year. The Tour of the Basque Country was also not an option in 2024, as it was too close to the Giro. So Catalonia was the only option." With success, in the end.

What is Pogacar's ultimate goal? "His dream is to win all the races on the calendar. That is why I am sure he will want to ride the Tour of the Basque Country, and I am sure he will go to the Vuelta in 2025 or 2026. However, he will decide with his team and those closest to him. I would say the chances of seeing him there next year are fifty percent," Carera cautiously predicts.

Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar wins Tour de France for the 3rd time

Pogacar, 25, is the first cyclist to win the giro d’italia and tour de france in the same year since 1998., published july 21, 2024 • updated on july 21, 2024 at 4:02 pm.

Tadej Pogacar won the Tour de France for the third time and celebrated in style with a victory in Sunday's final stage — a time trial ending in Nice.

The 25-year-old Slovenian rider became the first cyclist to secure the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year since the late Marco Pantani in 1998.

Two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark was second overall. He also finished the 21st and final stage in second place.

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Pogacar won the 34-kilometer (21-mile) time trial on the French Riviera's roads from Monaco to Nice in 45 minutes, 24 seconds. Vingegaard was 1 minute, 3 seconds behind him and Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel 1:14 back in third spot.

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In the overall standings, Vingegaard finished 6:17 behind Pogacar and Evenepoel was third overall, 9:18 behind Pogacar — whose other Tour wins came in 2020 and 2021.

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The race did not finish in Paris as it usually does because of the Olympic Games. Nice mayor Christian Estrosi called the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the southern French Alps “perfect cycling territory.”

From early Sunday morning, fans camped along the popular Promenade des Anglais in Nice to guard a spot that would offer the best glimpse of cyclists.

Some fans chanted “Remco, Remco” as the race-against-the-clock specialist zoomed past them.

They may have been surprised to see Pogacar going flat out.

After his explosive attack on Friday, Pogacar said he would not try to win Saturday’s stage. But the UAE Team Emirates rider could not resist and won that to become the second man to win five mountain stages in one Tour after Italian rider Gino Bartali in 1948.

Pogacar had no need to attack on Sunday, either, considering he led Vingegaard overnight by more than five minutes.

But the lure of another stage win proved too strong and he flew down the winding roads past picturesque Èze and Villefranche-sur-Mer on the approach to Nice, where the route flattened out again.

Pogacar held out three fingers as the finish line and a sixth stage win approached on this year’s Tour — the same number of stages he won when dominating the Giro d’Italia.

It was Pogacar’s biggest winning margin of his three Tour wins — beating the 5:20 gap on Vingegaard three years ago, but below the 7:29 victory margin Vingegaard enjoyed over Pogacar last year.

The battle with Vingegaard was not as close as it might have been in different circumstances.

The 27-year-old Vingegaard was hospitalized for nearly two weeks in April following a high-speed crash in the Tour of the Basque Country. He resumed competitive racing only on this Tour.

Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz won the best climber's polka dot jersey while Eritrea's Biniam Girmay won the top sprinter's green jersey and the 24-year-old Evenepoel capped a fine debut Tour with the white jersey for best young rider.

Associated Press writer Barbara Surk in Nice contributed to this report.

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