Fabian Cancellara on Jumbo classics domination: "We’ll also have to wait and see what happens when Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Julian Alaphilippe are all in the same race too"

Fabian Cancellara is one of the most experienced and successful classics riders in cycling history and quite a vocal one too. He's given an overview of the cobbled classics situation following an Opening Weekend ruled by Jumbo-Visma.

"I actually didn’t ride Opening Weekend very much in my career – only twice, in fact – because I preferred to get in another full week of training before Strade Bianche and the Italian races, but I still knew all about the old belief that the rider who wins Omloop can’t win the Tour of Flanders," Cancellara said in an extensive column for Cyclingnews.

The former Trek rider is currently on a management role with Tudor Pro Cycling Team, but has taken the time to watch and analyze the ongoing situation in the cobbled classics where he once thrived. With a combination of quality, tactics and training methods, Jumbo-Visma have entered the classics soaring with dominating victories at both Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne.

"They came straight from a training camp to these races, which is a different approach to when I was racing, but maybe I would do the same if I was still a rider now, because things have moved on and evolved a lot in the last few years," the Swiss continued. "Either way, they clearly showed that they were ready. Their condition already had to be really good to do what they did, and so that brings up that traditional Opening Weekend question – how long can they hold that condition? Only time will tell."

"...A lot has changed in terms of training and conditioning in recent years, and the ‘new’ route of Omloop, with the Muur and Bosberg, makes it even more like the Tour of Flanders. In any case, at Omloop and again at Kuurne, Jumbo-Visma were the dominant team, winning with Dylan van Baarle on Saturday and then with Tiesj Benoot the following day," he continued.

Cancellara talked of what was a "really smart race" and also has the belief that besides depth, the Dutch team is tactically racing at a superior level to the rest: "Winning bike races today isn’t just about having good legs. Sure, they had strength in numbers, but the key thing was that they used that advantage well, and in slightly different ways in each race."

Their tactics, which had also been used last season, very often put the Dutch team on the front foot and without the pressure to chase or be alarmed. Meanwhile, when they team attacked the race decisively, the instant and successful response to all counter-attacks proved tremendously successful at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. And this is expected to continue throughout the spring specially as Wout van Aert will return to the classics in late March.

At Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne they managed to get both Tiesj Benoot and Nathan van Hooydonck in a five-rider attack, and eventually they used their numerical advantage for victory with Benoot, as the Dutchman sprinted to second place. In the peloton, Christophe Laporte beat Arnaud De Lie and Fabio Jakobsen for the remaining spots.

"The other question, of course, is how does everybody else try to beat Jumbo-Visma?" Cancellara wonders. He's talked of how Bahrain - Victorious made a tactical error when responding to van Baarle with the wrong rider, and very much had a mindset that Jumbo were not unbeatable. Of course, only two of the big classics have so far taken place. Fatigue, dips in form, crashes and mishaps may all play a role that will see the races open wide. Another factor is key for the classics legend however.

"The first thing to say is that not everybody was racing at Opening Weekend, including Jumbo’s most important rider, Wout van Aert. We’ll also have to wait and see what happens when Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Julian Alaphilippe are all in the same race too," he argues. "That would change things, and it’s worth remembering that Stefan Küng had the flu before Opening Weekend too," he concluded.