"Tadej had everything under control" - UAE's management relied on Pogacar's climbing quality to fix tactical issues in Flanders

UAE Team Emirates - XRG won the Tour of Flanders for the second time in three years but it certainly wasn't because of a tactical masterpiece. Tadej Pogacar's two most important domestiques Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez crashed before the cobblestones, but the World Champion was still able to overpower all his rivals on the steep climbs.

“It was a difficult situation after those crashes. Narváez, Wellens and Vermeersch were the important pawns to prepare Tadej’s attack. That’s why we were in a bit of trouble at the time, but there was never any panic," Gianetti told Het Laatste Nieuws.

The team did manage to control the gap to around a minute, but with the likes of Tiesj Benoot, Quinten Hermans and Daan Hoole all represented in the front group at the halfway point of the cobbled section of the race (alongside danger men like Filippo Ganna, Matteo Trentin and more) there was a serious threat that the Slovenian could be forced to chase with his rivals in the wheel.

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However António Morgado, Mikkel Bjerg, Nils Politt and Florian Vermeersch all sacrificed themselves before the second ascent of the Oude Kwaremont, trying to keep the gap as low as possible before he would launch his first attack. With van der Poel not having a reliable card in the front group, he often collaborated the Slovenian, ultimately to the advantage of Pogacar who eventually won.

“On the radio, the guys told me that we were sticking to the plan, even though we had lost two. The others simply did a double job," DS Fabio Baldato detailed. "Mikkel Bjerg was prepared until the Molenberg and almost survived until the second time on Oude Kwaremont. Antonio Morgado and Nils Pollit were fantastic: they dropped off, came back, did another turn and then gave it their all once again.”

The team did not have the depth they had last year, with three riders in the Top5, but they managed to take the result they travelled to Belgium for. “Tadej had everything under control, he just had to get to the second Oude Kwaremont and then it was up to him. He wanted to push the others to the limit by attacking as much as possible. In San Remo we had seen that you can't get Mathieu off with one or two attempts. By going ten or eleven times today, he finally broke.”

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