Revenge for Tadej Pogacar! World champ incredibly turns the tables on Mathieu van der Poel to take solo victory at Tour of Flanders 2025
Cycling
The incredible Tadej Pogacar has put down another ride for the ages, soloing to a stunning victory at the 2025 Tour of Flanders after an enthralling day of racing and dramatically cracking his arch-rival Mathieu van der Poel on the final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont.
After an eight man group that included Victor Vercouille (Flanders-Baloise), Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana Team), Elmar Reinders (Jayco AlUla), Rory Townsend (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Marco Haller (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), Connor Swift (INEOS Grenadiers), Timo Roosen ( Picnic-PostNL) and Sean Flynn ( Picnic-PostNL) forced their way into the day’s early breakaway, they managed at one point to get their advantage up over the four minute mark.
That wasn’t to say things were calm in the bunch behind though. And although there were no attacks the first time up the Oude Kwaremont, the stress levels had been notably increased. With that rise in tension came crashes sadly, as Mathieu van der Poel himself went down at around 125km to go in an incident that also saw Jhonatan Narvaez and John Degenkolb, among others, hit the deck.
By the time the race reached 100km to go, just 6 riders remained in the lead group, but a 4-man counter including Tiesj Benoot, Vito Braet, Stefan Kung and Davide Ballerini were in between the break and peloton. Soon after, that select group was joined by another counter that included Filippo Ganna, Quinten Hermans, Daan Hoole and Matteo Trentin. With 91km to go, the counter-attack joined up with the break, forming a 13-man lead group, clear of the UAE Team Emirates - XRG led peloton by over a minute.
With powerhouses such as Ganna and Kung in the lead group, the peloton had every right to be concerned. Despite UAE working incredibly hard on the front of the bunch, the gap wasn't really dropping. In fact, it was actually going out every so slightly, with 1:15 separating the two groups at 65km to go. The sense of an imminent Tadej Pogacar attack was growing though, and with 56km to go, that move came! It seemed the Slovenian wasn't going full gas though, as a select group that included fellow favourites Mathieu van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson all managed to lock onto Pogacar's back wheel..
As things calmed down again ever so slightly after Pogacar realised he hadn't fully snapped the elastic, Neilson Powless, Jasper Stuyven and a couple of others managed to get back in contact with the world champion's group.
Then came the mythical Koppenberg. The break held an advantage of only around 30 seconds at the foot of the climb, but as Pogacar and Van der Poel accelerated again, that advantage was quickly diminished. Notably though, there was still nothing to separate the two big pre-race favourites. With 42km to go, Van der Poel and Pogacar made contact with the front of the race, with Pedersen, Van Aert, Jorgenson and co joining shortly after.
Before the Steenbeekdries, Pogacar put the hammer down again but once more, Van der Poel was quick to react. On the Taaienberg, another Pogacar attack was laid down and this time only Van der Poel and Pedersen were able to match as the Rainbow Jersey continued to wear down all his rivals. In the five-man chase group though, Visma trio Jorgenson, Benoot and Van Aert were joined by Kung and Stuyven.
Almost as soon as the next climb began with the Oude Kruisberg just inside the final 30km, Pogacar's latest attack saw Pedersen put into difficulty, leaving just the UAE leader and his Alpecin-Deceuninck counterpart Van der Poel clear at the head of the race. Heading into the final 20km however, Pogacar and Van der Poel had been joined again by Van Aert, Pedersen and Stuyven, whilst Jorgenson, Benoot and Kung were still chasing hard behind.
Ahead of the final ascent of the Kwaremont, Wout van Aert attacked the lead group, reaching the foot of the climb with a small gap at the head of the race. The Belgian's move didn't last long though as Pogacar began to wind things up again behind. Immediately on the cobbles, the world champion began to distance Van der Poel too, creating clear separation for the first time in the entire race. The gap wasn't yet race-winning by the top though, with only around 12 seconds between the Rainbow Jersey and the four-man chase group heading into the finale.
By the time Pogacar began the final climb of the day on the Paterberg, he'd extended his advantage to 24 seconds. By 10km to go, that had extended again to over the 30 second mark. The chase wasn't rolling through as if they were hunting down the lone leader either, with Pogacar looking more and more likely as the winner. Into the final 3km, Pogacar was certain of his win, around 50 seconds clear, giving the world champion yet another illustrious victory to add to his palmares.
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- Impressive and surprising, well done. Go for it more often please.Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Good choice of profile picture by the way :-)Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Bolt was an outlier, for some people it can’t exist. Funny thing is 3 generations later, a lot of amateurs reach the level the average pro had. Ok, maybe counting from today it might be 5 or 6 generations because we won’t all have access to the equipment and staff and assistance pros now need to perform.Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Actually, I’ve not noticed that fans have even noticed results are provisional so as far as the sport itself goes, I wouldn’t worry too much. Obviously some riders will miss out on celebrating but then these days, they’re all paid so well that it’s quite a small price to pay. Andy Schleck certainly didn’t get to party like he was used to when he received Alberto’s trophy and titles, nevertheless, he’s in the books and I’m sure he feels like and gets treated like a tdf winner. CATCHING dopers is good for the sport, though at the moment I’d have no idea who to go looking for.Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Someone like David Walsh, who was the point person in the Sky Team coverup? When there was money and fame in bringing down Armstrong, he went for that. Then he sold that crusader image to Sky. And then renounced them. The guy has made more money from athletes and doping without ever once competing himself, having to take drugs, or even stand for a single principle. He is no different than Novitzsky, who was pivotal in the Armstrong investigations, and helped put Marion Jones in jail. Now he is full-time in the coverup business for the UFC.
Barney10-04-2025 - Do you think that making results provisional for 10 years makes for good sport? Or in any way remotely fairer, or safer?Barney10-04-2025
- Christian Scaroni, Clément Champoussin, Harold Tejada, Simone Velasco ... Peripheral riders who have failed to make much impression so far in their carrier, suddenly starting to win everywhere, climbing with the best in weekly WT races. Aging riders years after their prime, now seen more often than none at the head of the peloton in the classics. Still, no what is talking about the Chinese candies in the roomBM10-04-2025
- It's easy to dismiss doubters. We need someone like David Walsh who dares to ask the hard question. In the mean time, I wouldn't worry too much about Tadej. Whether he dopes or not, at least, he's not a terrible person like LA Doper.
KerisVroom10-04-2025 - Pogi is an outlier. You cannot prove an outlier using the statistical data of average pros. If he releases the data, it will only cause even more suspicion. In 2020 TDF he was dropped by Roglic in the mountains. So how does he do the TT where in the flats he nearly beat Tom Dumoulin and beat everybody else on the climb by a ton. No matter what Pogi is too much of an outlier which can be proven by dataabstractengineer10-04-2025
- Sorry? Have you not noticed how many winners and others have been cancelled post event, not least from the Beijing and London Olympics? If that doesn’t qualify for practice generalisation in sporting procedure, what is, we’ve even gotten to the stage of pre-emptive barring under suspicion of possible doping. If you’re going to look at a problem like this seriously, don’t just look at what makes media headlines in the parts you pay attention to. There is probably a wiki list (very long) of athletes who were disqualified for substance irregularities post event, and each had the opportunity to their long and costly process to defend themselves, it just doesn’t make the news unless you’re already a megastar (in which case you’d be extremely stupid nowadays to risk it, but then again, many people, especially in sport, fall in or close to such a category.Mistermaumau10-04-2025