OPINION: Did Mathieu van der Poel make a crucial mistake at the Tour of Flanders?
Cycling
Mathieu van der Poel arrived this past Sunday at the Tour of Flanders in high spirits. Last year he had won the Ronde-Roubaix double and in this year's Milano-Sanremo he defeated Tadej Pogacar.
However, did he make a strategic error in yesterday's Tour of Flanders?
Potentially, Van der Poel was thinking about what he did in San Remo in the last two years than what happened in Flanders in 2023, when Pogi also managed to leave him in the Kwaremont.
Yesterday Mathieu ran as if he were Pogacar. He did the same as him. His team relieved in the same way as UAE. He even attacked on some climbs. And, of course, with the accumulation of efforts in hill after hill came the defeat at the end: he ran out of strength and Tadej, more accustomed to climbing in big mountain stages with large slopes, imposed his strength.
I think Mathieu should have played tactically with him. I think he shouldn't have given him any relays. And, I think he should have waited until the end and taken advantage of Mads Pedersen and Wout van Aert so that the Slovenian would have had to eat all the attacks.
Yes, maybe Pogacar would have won that way too, but he would have been squeezed to the maximum. Maybe that way he would have arrived at the last climb with a little less advantage. We'll never know.
Maybe Pedersen would have won the sprint, and you have to take everything into account. But I personally would rather take a chance on the Dane than the Slovenian.
Eddy Merckx won 'only' 2 Tour of Flanders in his career. because his rivals were allied against him and they were suffocating him;
Maybe Van der Poel needs to think about doing that, find himself and ally for the classics against the Slovenian. Maybe one year he will lose in a sprint with a Pedersen or a Van Aert as we said before, but he certainly cannot beat Pogacar on the climbs.
It was seen in 2023 and it was seen yesterday...
Tricky one as while I agree Pogi and UAE are simply faster over a long distance which means Visma and MVP need to be as smart with energy use as can, it's also been proven in the past that one way for Pogi to be beaten is relentless attacks, to put him into the red. However that does require a rider to as good as sacrifice themselves for that one move which makes risk
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