Chris Horner condmens Visma's "knucklehead" tactics during last year's Flanders campaign

The Monuments have become playground of Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel in the past seasons as the duo raised their arms on 14 out of 16 most recent races. That is why all the teams scratching their heads, trying to figure out a way to dethrone the two "kings" of one-day racing. But so far, none has succeeded. With Wout Van Aert and Tiesj Benoot among their ranks, Visma | Lease a Bike came close to winning many times, but ultimately always failed. Perhaps that can be found as one of the motivations for the latter's departure to Decathlon CMA GMC in 2026.

"Tiesj Benoot's talking about Tour of Flanders and not riding with Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel... Well, last year their tactics were pretty much knucklehead-ism throughout that Tour of Flanders," Chris Horner begins harshly in his Youtube podcast, reminding that this is what he's been pointing out about how to beat the two phenomenons.

According to Horner, the cup was half-empty from Visma last spring. Of course, the failures such as Dwars Door Vlaanderen weigh down the overall impression heavily, but there were also bright moments: "It was fantastic the way they were attacking early to try to get up the road," the American gives an example of a tactic he enjoyed.

"But then later, I could point out deep into the race, where Wout van Aert's on the front of the group, attacking Pogacar and Van der Poel, going into some of the final climbs at Tour of Flanders. I mean, we're talking about 20 kilometres to go. And you have Jorgensen back there and Tiesj Benoot pulling full gas to try to get up to this front group. That was a knucklehead move."

Horner believes Van Aert made a costly mistake there, throwing away a potential numbers advantage going into the finale. That backfired rather quickly as the Belgian only finished 4th, behind Pogacar, Van der Poel and even Mads Pedersen. However he's not the only guilty.

"If I back it up at the Tour of Flanders and go further back, I can show you where Benoot was attacking going up the difficult climbs with Pogacar there," Horner points out a situation at 40 kilometers to go. The 2013 Vuelta winner condemns this acceleration of Benoot as a naïve blunder, as he further explains:

"You don't attack the best rider on the steep, hard climbs. You attack them everywhere else. But not on the steep, hard climbs near the final, because it's easy for a number one and number two best riders in the world, Van der Poel and Pogacar. It's easier for them to cover an attack that's on the climb because you're not as good as them on the climb. So you have to attack other places and hope for a tactical scenario where they slow up and ease up."

To conclude, Horner provides his piece of advice to Benoot and his new team Decathlon CMA GCM for the 2026 campaign. First, whoever gets to join the breakaway must ride as hard as possible to dry out the energy reserves of UAE's and Alpecin's domestiques. The second is putting pressure directly on the two leaders:

"You have to make sure that you have Pogacar and Van der Poel in the wind at multiple times and at longer lengths of time than any other rider in that left over top front of the field while you're racing the classics. Otherwise, you can't beat these guys," he concludes.