Tour of Flanders conquered by Tadej Pogacar, victorious with monumental with solo effort

Tadej Pogacar has delivered. The UAE Team Emirates is the new winner of the Tour of Flanders after an epic race and a decisive attack at the Oude Kwaremont. Mathieu van der Poel and Mads Pedersen completed the podium.

The day has seen plenty action right from the start. With strong winds and a lot of planning ahead, many teams tried to get riders in the breakaway including some of the main teams. This led to a battle that took longer than an hour to be resolved. Tim Merlier (Soudal - Quick-Step), Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Bingoal WB), Jasper De Buyst (Lotto Dstny), Hugo Houle (Israel - Premier Tech), Filippo Colombo (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Daan Hoole (Trek - Segafredo), Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-EasyPost) and Elmar Reinders (Team Jayco AlUla) formed the day's breakaway.

With 143 kilometers to go, after some minor tumbles, Filip Maciejuk lost control of the bike at the head of the peloton and caused a mass crash that took out Tim Wellens from the race, Wout van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe went down before the Oude Kwaremont. Afterwards the race stabilized, but not for long. Team DSM conducted a collective attack on one of the many ascents, but the temporary gaps were then closed.

With just under 100 kilometers to go, after several moves, Kasper Asgreen attacked the race and formed a strong group, which saw several riders bridging across. Asgreen, Neilson Powless, Mads Pedersen, Stefan Küng, Nathan van Hooydonck, Florian Vermeersch, Matteo Trentin, Fred Wright and Jhonatan Narváez got a gap, a very strong group that saw it's gap grow to almost two minutes as torn down Alpecin-Deceuninck and UAE Team Emirates looked to control the gaps despite missing Kragh Andersen and Wellens in pursuit.

Another mass crash saw Matej Mohoric and Biniam Girmay among others abandon the race. Heading into the second climb of the Oude Kwaremont the peloton broke as Tadej Pogacar launched an attack and got a gap over his rivals. Pogacar kept a high pace through the Paterberg but the gap was then closed by van der Poel, van Aert, Laporte and Pidcock.

At the Koppenberg the group was reduced to three however as Pogacar launched an acceleration and was only followed by van Aert and van der Poel, as the gap became less than a minute over the leading group which featured several strong riders. The trio worked together to slowly bring down the gap, but at the Kruisberg an attack by van der Poel saw only Pogacar following. Van Aert cracked, but then had van Hooydonck from the front group wait for him, as the duo bridged across to the final survivors of the leading group.

Mads Pedersen had attacked before the Kruisberg and was now leading the race alone. At the Oude Kwaremont for the final time Pogacar attacked once again comfortably dropping the rest of the chase group, bridging across and dropping the Dane still within the sector as Mathieu van der Poel put on a chase.

The gaps were created and they could not be cut further. Pogacar kept extending it throughout the following kilometers as Mathieu van der Poel was the only rider who could put on a chase. The Slovenian took a glorious win however, taking his fourth monument in what is still a short career. Mathieu van der Poel crossed the line in second place, a strong performance but no doubt one with some disappointment.

The chasing group sprinted for third place, and here Mads Pedersen managed to barely beat Wout van Aert to close out the podium.