Van Aert denies Pogacar in gruelling Paris-Roubaix

 

“NEVER SAY DIE” that could be Wout Van Aert’s motto following the Belgian’s terrific victory in the fastest ever edition of the cobbled classic Paris – Roubaix on Sunday,  dishing out a rare defeat to world champion Tadej Pogacar,  outsprinted on the line.

The race was run off at 51kph,in  the record time of 5 hours 16 minutes and 52 seconds for the 258 kilometres, after dishing out mechanical problems to one and all.

Belgian Jasper Stuyven was third as three times winner Mathieu Van der Poel, the joint favourite with Pogacar, struggled in fourth, one of many to lose out.

Victory was sweet for Van Aert so often denied by falls and injuries and punctures. He has nevertheless remained steadfast, has never given up,  overcoming such setbacks to land memorable victories, with the exception of those races in which Pogacar has held an unassailable position ahead of him and everyone else. 

Until this day when fate levelled the playing field with extraordinary ruthlessness which saw the expected punctures and falls extended to include all

the favourites  halted during the course of the day.

We saw some famous names stopped at the roadside waiting for assistance before pulling out all the stops to  clawback lost time in the choking dust and over the bone jarring cobbles.  

So it was that only two of them, on their last legs nonetheless, Van Aert and Pogacar, both having rejoined the action after delays, raced into the lead together over the final kilometres.

Then to fight it out  on the velodrome where Van Aert put a couple of lengths into his rival who for once struggled to find an answer.

Bad luck for Van der Poel, who had been attacking at the front when he punctured twice in the Arenberg cobbled sector and needed three bike changes.

So Van der Poel, bidding for a fourth consecutive Paris – Roubaix in race pitched as a duel between him and Pogacar seeking his first here, was cruelly denied. He had attacked off the front while Pogacar was chasing back from earlier bike changes which occurred with 120km to go. That he made it back to take over at the head of race as Van Der Poel had his turn of misfortune, may not have surprised us, but clearly the effort ate into  his reserves.

Pogacar had hoped that victory in Roubaix  would complete his set of five monuments to go with his victories in Milan San Remo Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour of Lombardy. It was not to be.

It was Never Say Die Van Aert who at last dealt Pog the killer blow, so denying the phenomenon of the Tour de France and Classic road races from taking a cherished prize.

During his career
Van Aert has won over fifty professional road wins including ten stage victories at the  Tour de France betweem 2019 and 2025, plus the green jersey of points classification in 2022.. He won the 2023 Tour of Britain.

He also won  Milan–San Remo in 2020 and was third this year. The media declared him to be the most complete cyclist of his generation".

His  rivalry with Mathieu van der Poel in cyclo-has seen one of the greatest rivalries in the sport.

Belgium's finest brutally destroyed by Pogacar in Flanders epic

 

You know this of course. I merely add a few words of my own, to keep up with the fairy story which leaves us all, including the other World Tour riders spellbound and us couch potatoes glued to the TV, reaching for another a beer  - Belgian this time,  of course.

And yes, Tadej Pogacar crushed his four main rivals – all four of them classics winners, world and Olympics champions in their own right – to win his third Tour of Flanders on Sunday.

It was his 11th “Monument” victory (correction, 12) of his career, adding to his first win this year in Milan – San Remo, and before that, his fourth Strada Bianchi.

Never before have we seen a world road race champion demonstrate such crushing superiority week after week.  Be it in his four Tour de France victories so far, or the classics he chooses to ride to  win.  Such unearthly power, such sudden bursts of acceleration to leave rivals, at best clinging on for a while, before being blown away.

There were no tactics in Flanders, one of the most difficult of the five Monuments, one of the biggest road classics, and Belgian’s biggest race of all. Philippe Gilbert in 2017 was the last home winner.

Could either Wout Van Aert or Remco Evenpoel be the next?

It was not to be.

A monumental brutal show of brute strength by Pogacar at the end of this 278-kilometre marathon though the Ardennes saw to that.

In the fifth hour, after the early breakaway was caught, with some 60km to go, Pogacar simply attacked and, as commander of the sizeable group which was quick enough to go with him, he began to weed them out in the wind and on the terrible cobbled climbs which included three ascents of the most difficult of them all, the Oude Kwaremont where most damage was done. 

In the end only five were left at the head of the race. Then there was only one, Himself. Pogacar as expected was tearing along and going further away from his opponents, as if propelled by a gale.

Two times winner Mathieu Van Der Poel, Olympic road champion Remco Evenpoel, the Belgian favourite Wout Van Aert and Mads Pedersen, were outgunned. Is executed too strong a word?  And so Pogacar powered away to victory. 

Suitably, these four main challengers – big names all - rolled in to the finish in splendid isolation in his wake. One by one they took their curtain calls from the crowd applauding their efforts, futile it must be said. Van Der Poel, second; Evenpoel third; Van Aert fourth; Pedersson fifth.

Pogacar embraced them all, smiling at them, after another nice day out.  Of them all he appeared to have been most wary of Evenpoel, admitting he knows that the world time trial champion and Olympic road champion can find that extra kick at the line if allowed to stay.

A few moments after finishing, Van Aert, with a broad grin, leaned in close to Pogacar and said something.

Probably: “Look, how much do you want not to start Paris-Roubaix next Sunday?

Van der Poel won last year, with Pogacar second on his debut,  after a flat tyre.

Bring it on. Paris-Roubaix, April 12.

 

 

 

 

Pogacar just snatches Milan - San Remo from super Pidcock

 

It was the most exhilarating finale fans could have wished for as Tadej Pogacar recovered from a crash to produce another scintillating performance to win his first Milan – San Remo, the opening spring classic of the season on Saturday.

But My Oh My!  This was edge of the seat stuff to the very end!

For the crash which took down the favourites with 32km to go put the “Battle of the Giants” on hold in Saturday’s gripping 298km Milan San Remo, as Pogacar’s big rival, Mathieu Van Der Poel,  was injured in the melee.  

But nothing could stop Tadje Pogacar from picking himself up to regain the field and score a scorcher of a victory – his first in this classic, after twice taking second. He did so holding off Britain’s Tom Pidcock by half a wheel after nearly seven hours racing. A few days before,   Pidcock had won the Milano-Torino classic and was flying.

As for Pog’s big rival, the two times winner Van Der Poel – winner in 2025 and 2024 when Pogacar was third  -  he injured  his hand in that fall and couldn’t respond to his rival’s attacks on the final  climb, the Poggio in last few kilometres.

 The other big name in that crash was 2020 winner Wout Van Aert who had an extra delay waiting for a replacement bike and yet still recovered to take a magnificent third place while Van Der Poel (VDP) was placed 8^th.

Wow. So Pogacar!!!!

Twice third here behind VDP, he finally triumphed, his trademark warp factor acceleration leaving all but one of his rivals for dead  – the first time not to  attack from the front, as usual - but to re-join the main field  now 52 seconds ahead of him after his crash with 32km to go.

Having regained the field, he threaded through them with ease,  to attack again, to soar ahead - as planned - half-way up the 5km Cipressa climb. In doing so he pulverised all but the multi-talented Pidcock and Van Der Poel who, though able to respond to this as the road emptied in their wake, was too hurt to hold on up the final ascent, the Poggio. 

So instead of VDP, Pogacar had Pidcock to deal with and the Briton came so close to landing the biggest classic victory of his career.  This was surely the most unpredictable finish we could have hoped for, in doubt to the very last?

Pogacar, his world champion’s rainbow jersey torn and his leg grazed, wasn’t sure if Pidcock had pipped him, so close were they. After crossing the line he needed to look across at PIdcock to satisfy himself job done before punching the air in triumph.

So, the first part of his major aim for 2026 is accomplished, to win the two remaining Monuments which have eluded him. With Milan – San Remo in the bag, next up is Paris – Roubaix in April where he was second- with a flat tyre - on his debut last year to Van Der Poel.

Will this be Battle of the Giants resumed?

Pogacar has won Tour of Flanders twice; Liege-Bastogne-Liege three times, and Tour of Lombardia five! Counting his recent Milan – San Remo victory, that makes 11 Monument wins so far.

Eddy Merckx holds the record of most Monument wins in his career, 19.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MAGNIFICENT POGACAR polishes off his fourth Strada Bianchi

 

“IT’S NOT MUCH FUN” said Britain’s Tom Pidcock as

Pogacar sailed to an unprecedented fourth win a row at Strada Bianchi on Saturday.

I agreed with him. But for a different reason.

Pidock was referring to his misfortunes,  – he had unshipped his chain while trying to close on Pogacar and that was that. The past winner finished a gallant seventh.

No, the fun aspect for me went out of it watching the classy opposition

outclassed yet again by this phenomena  – unable to raise their game to stop the runaway.

 

As for Pog, he opened his season as he left off in 2025. Then it was with decisive long lone break to his take fifth consecutive Tour of Lombardy in October.   Now, five months later, he opens his 2026 campaign exactly as he left off – with a show of force which defies explanation.

For  Pogacar’s has once again destroyed the opposition with his trademark warp factor acceleration. And he won this 204-kilometre tough gravel classic in Tuscany attacking alone with 78km to go.

Only the impressive second place by 19-year-old Paul Seixas one minute behind promised a regime change in the near future – a real French prospect.

Pogacar's UAE Emirates-XRG team-mate Isaac del Toro was third.

 

It is so clear Pog is off a different class altogether. Maybe from a different galaxy. He’s probably got a saucer parked in an underground garage somewhere.

 

As brilliant and so impressively strong as he is, I admit a race reduced to a one-man band is  no longer that much fun.

 
What a pity Holland’s star Mathieu Van Der Poel opted not to ride. He’s also from a different  galaxy, probably.

He’d  have challenged Pog. He might have reached him, given him a fright.  The pair have been at each other hammer and nails in the classics before.

 I’d read he was put off because of an extra long climb in this year’s edition. Didn’t suit him.

But on the day we learn there was no extra climb.

Anyway, with Pog, it’s like watching a first cat destroy a third cat race and that’s no disrespect to other pros.

 

Perhaps organisers should handicap Pog and  his UAE team. Load their bikes with saddlebags filled with sand.

Or set the field off f ive minutes in front and let’s see how long it is before they catch up.

 

“Ha, ha. Titter ye not”, to borrow a catch phrase from t he late comedian Frankie Howard.  For there is race like this in Pog’s home country, where their hero is held back behind a field of hopefuls  before being unleashed to see if can catch up and still win.

He usually does, but  last year he was upstaged – if that’s the word – by an English rider!

 

This fun challenge takes place on Pogacar’s home roads in Krvavec, Slovenia. This is the  annual Pogi Challenge charity race, against 1,189 cyclists up a 15km climb with 1,189m of elevation gain.

Pogačar passed every participant with the exception of four-time British hill climb champion, Andrew Feather, 40,  from Bath.

The charity ride started with a non-timed 9.1km warm-up, before participants head up the timed climb itself. Sportingly, Pogačar gave them a six-minute head start and Feather held him off.

The thrill for the opposion is the antipication of  feeling that rush of air as the star rockets by!

 

Chabbey wins women’s Strada Bianchi in thrilling finish.

The women’s Strada Bianchi was far more unpredictable, as five riders battled the famous uphill finish in Siena, where Swiss champion Elise Chabbey won for the first time following a thrilling finish to the 133km race.

 

Seven riders sped onto the Via Santa Catarina, the final ascent through narrow streets to the Piazza del Campo finish, where three were dropped in the power finish.

Italian road champion Elisa Longo Borghini whose earlier breakaway had drawn top rivals to give chase and join her, was still full of fire and led most of the way up.

But in shoulder to shoulder battle for the last but one corner, Borghini gave best to Franziska Kock and Katarzyna Niewiadoma, as Chabbey, marking her time, shot down the inside and clear for victory .

 

 

 

Will he won't he...as Van Der Poel now doubtful starter in Strada Bianchi

 

BATTLE of the Giants on hold as some news reports say Mathieu Van Der Poel has decided not ro ride Saturday's Strada Bianchi where world champion Tadej Pogacar is bidding for a fourth consecutive victory.

While some news outlets tonight still say Van Der Poel will start, others say the additional climbing in the 2026 edition doesn't suit him and he will not be on the start line.

So the eagerly awaited clash of the giants in Tuscany Italy may be on hold.

Which is real downer after we saw how Van der Poel, who ran amok in the winter cyclo-cross season, rode away with   last Saturday’s opening Flemish classic, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad,

Did you see it?

One month – 28 days to be precise – after Mathieu Van Der Poel destroyed the field to take a record 8^th world cyclo-cross title in his native HollandollH, notching up, on the way, a record 50   UCI world cyclo-cross victories in his career, the flying Dutchman broke away to win the opening Flemish classic of 2026, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with the same stunning show of force!

It was his first victory of Omloop, and he rode 174 top roadmen off his wheel to carry it off.

Whether it is an hour-long ‘cross in clinging mud, sand and obstacles or a five hour road race featuring a dozen short cobbled climbs it makes no difference. Van Der Poel avoids the many spills in the peloton and when he puts the power down he’s gone.

Safe to say he’s on song.  We can expect a showdown between him and Pogacar as VDP  attempts a fourth  victory in Milan – San Remo later this month and a fourth consecutive win in Paris – Roubaix in April. The latter would equal a record shared only by Roger DeVlaeminck and Tom Boonen.

Pog, a winner of all the other “monuments”, has yet to win either Milan San Remo (he was third last year) or Paris Roubaix (second in  his debut last year, after a puncture). 

Van Der Poel’s exhibition in Belgium last Saturday was a sublime performance by an athlete at the top of his game. I caught the last hour or so live on the box so I’m not even going to attempt a coherent summary of the whole race.

There was the day long break.

Two hours to go and the chase was well underway with the field strung out and shedding riders from the back.

The action unfolded on the Molenberg climb when Florian Vermeersch led the field, with Van der Poel sat on his wheel. There was a brief frightener when Rick Pluimers slid out right in front of Van der Poel whose acrobatic cyclo-cross skills kicked in. He appeared to momentarily stall before skipping neatly sideways to carry on – all in the blink of an eye.

So it was he closed a gap to Vermeersch almost instantly and took control over the summit.  Up to them swept Tim van Dijke and this trio soon swept up to and rode straight by the leading break, who hitched a lift.

Six men on front. It was all Van der Poel now, a locomotive with five trucks hooked up to him, with only Vermeersch offering to contribute.

 

On the wicked cobbled climb of the Muur van Geraardsbergen – the wall of Flanders with the church at the summit - VDP accelerated clear of his companions. There was no attack, as such. He didn’t even get out of the saddle. Van Der Poel simply rode away from them but it took a massive effort, for he was lunging at the pedals in a huge gear on the wickedly steep cobbled climb. He was round the corner and gone, lost to sight by the chasers with less than 20km to go.

His late companions looked spent. It was over for them. As for the peloton at one minute they would not pull him back as a group. It would take a small break of two or three men.

But they had better be quick about it. There was an 8km tailwind section coming up, before a left turn and final seven kilometres run for home. Any counter attack would need to get away before that tailwind section otherwise even a tired peloton could more easily pull them back. No one got clear.

Nothing to be done.  Only a mechanical could stop the Dutchman superstar.

He was poetry in motion.

Behind him, Tim van Dijke outsprinted Florian Vermeersch for the runner-up spot.

So VDP nailed his colours to the mast and his task now is replicating this form for Milan – San Remo in a few weeks’ time.

And in the meantime attention switches to Strada Bianchi on Saturday, when Pogacar starts favourite on the white stoney dusty hilly roads of Tuscany.

Pogacar as defending champion will be bidding for his fourth title here.

 

 

 

 

Dancelli remembered for his long distance solo to win Milan - San Remo

 

ITALY’S Michele Dancelli, star of the Sixties and Seventies, passed away on December 18. He was 83. Dancelli is especially remembered for his winning triumph in the 1970 Milan - San Remo Spring Classic with an outstanding 70 –kilometre solo break!

This was a massive success for Italian fans, for it had been 18 years since an Italian had won the home opening Classic of the season.

My previous blog about that very race speculated as to whether Tadej Pogacar, third last year, could win the next edition with his trademark lone break. Regrettably I had missed the Dancelli story, his famous solo victory in the race known as the sprinters classic.

It is thanks to a friend of mine, Al, a one-time training partner back in the 70s who, moved to examine the results more thoroughly, gave me that gem.

For I well recall Dancelli who was from my era, an exciting rider who regularly made the headlines.

Clearly, my story lacked this vital and epic performance which Pogacar will surely want to emulate.

Dancelli was riding for Molteni, the team of the great Eddy Merckx.

This was the era of Merckx, unsurpassed as the greatest rider of all time and of Gimondi, another Italian star and, like Merckx, a grand tour winner.

Dancelli may not have achieved their heights, but he had a Stella record. He was twice Italian road champion, 11 times a Giro stage winner and wearer of the Maglia Rosa for 14 days.

He was both a Tour rider and a single-day classic star, winning the 1966 Fleche – Wallonne and 1968 Paris – Luxembourg, and taking many podium places in other major single-day races.

He had panache, tenacity, ambition. A Dancelli attack demanded attention! He would win from breakaways, on climbs, on descents.

When he attacked it was either get him back or go with him.

In that historic 1970 Milan San Remo, no one else could.

But it all came to a premature end in 1971 when he broke his femur in Tirreno Adriatico and was unable to perform at the same level again.

RIP Michele Dancelli.

 

Place your bets: Pogacar to win both Milan - San Remo and Paris-Roubaix in 2026

 

Can Pogacar at last score in Milan – San Remo and in Paris – Roubaix next year?

Why not?  It’s not yet 2026 and already we are asking can the star of the new Millennium, Tadej Pogacar the 27-year-old Slovenian, at last win the  two Monuments missing from his impressive palmares.

They are the spring classic Milan – San Remo in March and the cobbled Hell of the North, the Paris-Roubaix, in April.

We know he’s targeting both and needs to be at his best. Let’s focus on his first challenge, the season-opener, the longest classic of them all at some 300 kilometres, Milan – San Remo which he will start for the sixth time. He has twice finished third.

Clearly Pogacar is wary of his main rivals, double winner in San Remo Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, winner in 2020; not to mention the reigning Olympic road and time trial champion Remco Evenpoele.

The question is, can he win it in his trade mark fashion, deny the sprinters with a long lone break no one else can match?

His most recent audacious triumphs have included defending his world road race title in Rwanda last September, going solo 66km out from the finish.

And the next month he won his fifth consecutive Tour of Lombardia, the closing classic of the season, with an equally astonishing lone break of 50 kilometres.

We know he can sprint. Here’s a couple. On the opening stage of the Criterium du Dauphine this year he outsprinted Jonas Vingegaard and Mathieus Van de Poel. On stage 4 of the Tour de France in Rouen this year, he outsprinted Van der Poel to chalk up his 100^th victory.

 

World Road Race Champion Tadje Pogacar earlier this year.

But the lone attack seems to have become his modus operandi.

The question is can this serve him in Milan - San Remo? 

I can find no record of anyone doing so from a long way out.  For Milan – San Remo is known as the sprinters classic, with a super group at the head of the race going full pelt, pulling back the usual earlier breakaway of hopefuls who sometimes stay clear for a long while.

The race favours those who have the legs to get clear on the infamous final climb of the Poggio,  five kilometres from the end, or on rare occasions, by anyone mad enough to attack on the twisting descent which bottoms out in San Remo about 2km from the line. There is often only seconds separating the first few at the finish.

But last March, the race winning trio formed on the Cipressa, some 22 kilometres from the finish.

The race starts from Milan in the industrial heart of Northern Italy to finish in the fashionable seaside resort of San Remo on the Italian Riviera.

From the start, field heads south west over the plains of Lombardy and Piedmont, via the cities of Pavia, Voghera, Tortona, Novi Ligure and Ovada.

At Liguria, the riders tackle their first hurdle of the day, the Turchino Pass after 140 kilometres.

They are at almost half distance here and after the descent soon reach the spectacular Ligurian Coast, which they will hug all the way to Remo passing through many seaside resorts, the blue sea to t heir left. They must tackle three short climbs, the Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta in San Lorenzo al Mare. Now the course loops inland towards what is often the first big shakedown, the climb of the Cipressa with a summit 22 kilometres from the finish.

The peloton is usually much reduced by this point, but still a sizeable group rejoins the coast road, now moving at a fair lick and facing one last hurdle, the Poggio, 5.4km from the line.

They hit this slope and all hell breaks loose, attack after attack.

What are the odds of Pogacar - who has attacked up here before – doing so again and this time getting clear? Can he land this elusive victory this time?

Let us take a look at his five previous attempts; 12^th in 2020; 5^th in 2022; 4^th in 2023; 3^rd in both 2024 and 2025.

Take a look at the main players in each of those finishes.

The 2020 edition was won in a close sprint by Wout Van Aert from Julian Alaphilippe both in the same time – 7 hours, 16 minutes nine seconds.

Breathing down their necks at two seconds, Michael Matthews took third outsprinting Peter Sagan and a large groups including Pogacar placed 12^th.

The 2022 edition taken won by Matej Mohorič, executing a brilliant solo attack on the descent of the Poggio to finish two seconds clear of Anthony Turgis; Van der Pol was third with Pogacar 5^th, from a group of seven.

2023 Van per Poel won alone, 15 seconds ahead of   Filippo Ganna second with Van Aert third and Pogacar fourth, all in the same time.

In 2024 it came down to another group sprint all given the same time , with Jasper Philipsen first from Matthews with Pogacar third.

2025 Van der Poel won for the second time, beating Ganna.  Pogacar was third again in a sprint finish after the trio had escaped the peloton on the Cipressa 22 kilometres out.  They finished 43 seconds ahead of the next group led in by Michael Matthews.

It was notable that it was Pogacar who started that move on the Cipressa, rocketing ahead of the group from which only Van der Poel and Ganna were able to bridge the widening the gap on the fastest ever ascent of the climb.

Cue for 2026!