Mathieu van der Poel: "There are a lot of people who helped me win here"

It was an enormous return to the peloton, a journey completed today by Mathieu van der Poel. Since the beginning of the year, it had been a question mark if he could be in the classics, then if he could be in the Tour des Flandres with form, and finally if he could win it. The Alpecin-Fenix rider has succeeded in his recovery, and has taken one of the most important wins of his career today.

“It was especially on the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg where Tadej rode up very quickly. On the Pater I was even on the point of dropping. After that I really had to recover. I don't think I've ever come across that soured. I was really on the verge of letting go. But I knew I had to get over that. Then you always have a bit to get to the finish, but it still hurt a lot," van der Poel said after the finish. After returning to competition at Milano-Sanremo, it was still hard to grasp that van der Poel could go on to win the Tour des Flandres. After winning Dwars door Vlaanderen it felt like an obtainable goal much more, specially when Wout van Aert announced his absence from the race.

Throughout the afternoon it were many the attacks that van der Poel had to resist from Tadej Pogacar, but he succeeded in each one. The duo worked together until the finish, and on the final kilometer they went on a standstill which allowed the chasers Valentin Madouas and Dylan van Baarle to come back: “They came back very quickly all of a sudden. Then I started my sprint myself. But I was a bit surprised, because I was really only working with Tadej and no longer with those two others. Suddenly they came back with a lot of speed. I had to start sprinting.”

“I've had that situation for three years in a row now, so I kind of knew what to do. For that sprint, I once again picked myself up and did everything I could to win. I worked so hard for this race. For a long time it was uncertain whether I would even make it to the classics. If you can also win the Tour of Flanders after Dwars Door Vlaanderen, it's incredible that you succeeded," he added.

He ended up the fastest sprinter in the group, as Pogacar struggled with the duo that had came from behind and was left out of the podium: "It is certainly a pity that Pogacar is not going on the podium. Maybe he was the strongest in the race today. He has been very aggressive. I would have awarded him the podium, even the victory if he had beaten me. Perhaps the advantage of having to sprint here a few times was that I was able to win."

"Working towards Paris-Roubaix now? Gosh, I'm going to enjoy this one first. There are a lot of people who helped me win here, so I'm going to celebrate this win with them first," he concluded. Amstel Gold Race and Paris-Roubaix follow in the Dutchman's calendar, but he will not have the same pressure to perform after having gotten what was one of his biggest goals of the spring after a late start to the season.