After Wout van Aert was severely injured and Mads Pedersen is in doubt to start the Tour of Flanders, Mathieu van der Poel's life became much less complicated for the second monument of the season. He is the main favourite to take the win, and he can achieve an interesting goal which very few have in history.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider won the E3 Saxo Classic after a terrific performance with attacks from very far away, eventually soloing to the win. In Flanders, a tougher race, a similar scenario is expected with only the likes of Matteo Jorgenson or Pedersen - if he recovers - being at a similar level.
If van der Poel wins, he will also be only the sixth rider in the history of the men's side of the sport to win with the rainbow jersey. Although often World Champions are classics specialists, this has actually only been achieved by five riders in the past.
They were Louison Bobet in 1955, Rik van Looy in 1962, Eddy Merckx in 1975, Tom Boonen in 2006 and most recently Peter Sagan in 2016. Van der Poel has good chances of adding his name onto this list as the winner of the 2024 edition.
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