In a column published by Het Nieuwsblad, former Tour of Flanders winner Niki Terpstra provided his analysis of the race and discussed the top favourites, such as Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, and Tadej Pogacar.
He believes that van der Poel and van Aert have a greater chance of winning this Sunday's race.“They are the real specialists: explosive on the short climbs, enough stamina ánd they both have a sprint in their legs,” writes Terpstra.
He continues, “ Mathieu's short, explosive sprints had become his Achilles heel. He tackled that problem nicely in the E3 by attacking earlier. That's where he found the key. Van der Poel already showed in Sanremo that he is in bizarrely good shape. He is made for the Ronde.”
Having clinched the top spot on the podium twice before, the Dutchman has a competitive advantage over the other riders. “Everything in it, he can do well. Another advantage Van der Poel has is that he already has her twice on his palmares. Then he has the best cards to play poker. Mathieu is racing more on instinct. He is more unpredictable than Wout, who more often relies on the plan that has been thought out beforehand. Mathieu dares to deviate from that and ride his own course,” concluded Terpstra.
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