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 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.
