"He could maybe even go from the Koppenberg" - Fabian Cancellara foresees long-range attack by Mathieu van der Poel at Tour of Flanders

There is no doubt about who enters the 2024 Tour of Flanders as pre-race favourite... Mathieu van der Poel. With that standing comes extra pressure however, something Fabian Cancellara knows well.

"Mathieu’s situation before this Ronde is similar to mine in 2011 when I was with Leopard. I was the favourite, and the weight of the race was on my team," writes the legend of Swiss cycling in a column for Cycling News. "As the day went on, I gradually lost my teammates, so I said to myself that the best defence was just to attack. I went quite early then with Sylvain Chavanel, and when they caught us at the Muur, we went again on the run-in, but this time with Nick Nuyens. The rest is history. Nuyens won the race, and maybe something like this could also happen on Sunday."

Although attacking early didn't work out for Cancellara over a decade ago, the now boss of Tudor Pro Cycling Team foresees the world champion trying a similar tactic this year and knowing the history of van der Poel, if he is to attack from long-range, a spectacular solo victory could be in store.

"The other teams will be thinking about how to take on Van der Poel. They’ll be weighing up whether to go on the first time up the Kwaremont or the second time, and so on. But at the same time, they all know that Mathieu himself has the potential to go early," Cancellara analyses. "That might be how he defends himself. He could maybe even go from the Koppenberg. It’s going to be an intriguing race."

"We could end up with an anticipation race, where riders who are strong but not necessarily top favourites for Flanders – people like Oier Lazkano, Stefan Küng, Alberto Bettiol or maybe even Matteo Trentin – might try to go earlier than normal to get ahead of Van der Poel," he concludes. "Now, Mathieu is just so good that he could decide to follow them himself. He’s certainly shown in the last two races that he isn’t afraid to go early, but it’s still a big tactical call to make. Mentally this will be a big, big game to play."