“I thought it was a motorbike… it was Tadej Pogacar” - Van der Poel teammate stunned by world champion’s speed in Flanders

Tadej Pogacar’s Tour of Flanders victory has already been framed through results and dominance. What continues to emerge in the days after is how that performance actually felt inside the race itself.

For those caught in the moment, it did not always resemble a normal bike race. Among them was Alpecin-Premier Tech rider Florian Senechal, a team-mate of Mathieu van der Poel, who found himself in position as the race began to split on the climbs. What followed was something he had not experienced before.

Senechal was not dangling at the back when he first saw Pogacar come through. He was well placed, riding among some of the strongest names in the race, and felt in control of the situation as the pace lifted.

“It was impressive,” he said in conversation with Eurosport. “I was well-positioned with my team. I was following Christophe Laporte and Remco Evenepoel, I felt comfortable, and suddenly I saw something coming past me on the right. I thought it was a motorbike and I was ready to shout at it.”

What made the moment hit even harder was not just the speed itself, but the context around it. Senechal stressed that the group was already flat out, with riders like Laporte and Evenepoel holding their positions and riding strongly, yet Pogacar still came past them all into the wind.

“But no, it was Tadej going up the climb, who came past at a speed… I’ve never seen that in my life, and I’ve seen a lot in my career,” Senechal said, before spelling out the contrast. “When I saw him go past at that speed, while we were already flat out… In front of me there were strong riders like Laporte and Remco riding well, but they weren’t moving up. Tadej, though, came past everyone into the wind, like a motorbike. That’s the difference.”

The moment came well before the final Oude Kwaremont, but it already hinted at how the race would eventually be decided. When Pogacar made his winning move later in the race, first dropping Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel before finally distancing Mathieu van der Poel, it followed the same pattern Senechal had witnessed earlier: riders already at their limit, and Pogacar still able to create another level.

That is what made the attack in the finale feel less like a sudden breakthrough and more like the final expression of something that had been visible all day.

Senechal did not try to romanticise it afterwards, nor did he describe it as crushing in the way some others in the peloton have. “No, it’s just that there’s no comparison, that’s all, that’s how it is.”

That line perhaps captures the current mood around Pogacar better than any grand statement. At Milano-Sanremo, he had already shown he could force separation in a race that rarely allows it. In Flanders, he repeated the pattern on terrain designed to expose the strongest rider, but still did it with a level of ease that seemed to catch even experienced professionals off guard.

For Van der Poel and his team, the day ended with another podium and another race shaped by Pogacar’s accelerations. For Senechal, it left something more specific: a clear image of what the gap now looks like when you are in the middle of it.

Not just in results, not just in time gaps, but in the sight of one rider moving past a group that is already at full speed as if he belongs to something else entirely.