Johan Bruyneel on Mathieu van der Poel: "There's only one guy who can follow him and that's Tadej Pogacar"

Johan Bruyneel analyzed Mathieu van der Poel's performance in his E3 Saxo victory, extending his analysis to what may happen next week in his showdown with Tadej Pogacar at the Tour of Flanders.

On The Move podcast, the former US Postal sports director wanted to make it clear that he was not at all surprised by what happened in Harelbeke: "No surprise about Van der Poel, the way he won Milano -Sanremo, the way he won his first race of the year and especially today, this is where he trains, this is his garden, this is where he moves best. There were no tactics, no surprises. The only tactic was that his team had to hunt for a long time because the crashes split the peloton and there were some teams that took advantage."

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Bruyneel is impressed with how tactically he is adapting to the classics and how he is winning them: "The way Van der Poel is racing now... he did it on a tactical level in Sanremo, in Samyn he tried it, saw it wasn't hard enough and waited for the sprint, he's unbeaten at the moment in one-day races this season, he's raced 3 and won all 3 of them."

This is how he explained VDP's tactics at E3 that made him win with patience and strength in the end:

"The A3 he won it fair and square He put himself in a defensive position, he had to sacrifice his team, which was not the plan, but this guy can adapt to situations...you say to yourself, look, this guy can adapt and change the plan. Then he followed Pedersen on the Taaienberg and on the Paterberg, which is the last climb of the Tour of Flanders, he did the same thing, he followed Pedersen and didn't move. Then on the Kwaremont, the longest and the hardest, he took off."

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He believes that what was seen in the Kwaremont during E3 was in a sense a training session for VDP with the Tour of Flanders in mind: "I think it's something we can see again next week (at the Tour of Flanders) because it was there on the Kwaremont that Pogacar dropped Van der Poel two years ago. It's the longest climb on pavé, so E3 was a test for him. I think in Flanders he has to be a bit better."

Bruyneel ends by making it clear that no one but Tadej Pogacar can stop the Dutchman's dominance in the Flemish classics at the moment:

"My conclusion from today's race is that it's Van der Poel and the rest and there's only one guy who can follow him and that's Tadej Pogacar, no one else can. Pedersen tried, he rode very well, but he finished a minute behind. Ganna is in great form, he tried to follow, but he finished 2 minutes behind."

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