"He said it was privileged information, so I respected that" - Oliver Naesen admits he kept Van der Poel’s race revelation secret from his own team at In Flanders Fields

The decisive moment at In Flanders Fields may not have come on the Kemmelberg, but much earlier and in a far more unexpected way.

Long before the race reached its defining phase, Mathieu van der Poel had already made his intentions clear. Not publicly, not over the radio, but in a brief exchange within the peloton itself.

Oliver Naesen was one of the few riders to hear it. “At the entrance to one of the plugstreets, I looked to my right and said, ‘Mathieu, it would suit me if you didn’t attack immediately, I’ve just spent a lot of time in the wind,’” Naesen explained on the HLN Wielerpodcast.

The response was immediate. “‘No stress, we want to sprint,’” Naesen recalls. "That showed their plan was fixed in advance, and it immediately gave me confidence for the finale."

That short exchange now casts the entire finale in a different light. Van der Poel’s measured approach alongside Wout van Aert on the Kemmelberg, his reluctance to fully commit to the move, and the eventual regrouping that set up Jasper Philipsen’s sprint victory all align with a plan that, according to Naesen, had already been decided.

Even as the race appeared to be heading towards a two-man duel, the outcome that followed was already being shaped behind the scenes. That reading is also supported by Van der Poel’s own account after the finish, where he admitted: “In the break with Wout, I deliberately didn’t fully commit.”

Van Aert, too, recognised the dynamic as it played out on the road. “The cooperation with Mathieu was good, but he had the luxury that Philipsen was still behind him, which meant he could ride a bit more defensively towards the end. That was to my disadvantage and made the difference.”

Naesen, however, did not pass on what he had heard. “He said it was privileged information, so I respected that,” he admitted.

That decision adds another layer to the story. Naesen was riding for the Decathlon CMA CGM Team, a team that still had a clear card to play in the finale with Tobias Lund Andresen. The Dane would go on to sprint to second place, underlining how close the team came to capitalising on the outcome that Alpecin-Premier Tech had been working towards.

Yet they approached the final phase without the full picture. Had that information been shared, would it have influenced how Decathlon and others approached the closing kilometres?

With Van der Poel effectively managing the move rather than committing fully, and with Philipsen positioned behind, the balance of the race had already shifted towards a sprint. Instead, the race unfolded without that insight being widely known within the peloton.

Naesen’s decision not to relay the information reflects a different dynamic within the peloton, where personal relationships and informal exchanges sit alongside team tactics. His explanation was simple and rooted in respect rather than strategy.

That broader tactical picture was also touched on in the same podcast. Greg Van Avermaet noted: “You see that after the Kemmelberg he never really rode full gas anymore.”

At the same time, it raises an unavoidable question. In a race where margins are often measured in seconds and positioning, how valuable is information, and what happens when it is not shared?

At In Flanders Fields, the answer may lie in the fine line between a sprint for victory and a sprint for second place.