UAE lineup for Tour of Flanders corrected - Tadej Pogacar can count on Florian Vermeersch!
Cycling
UAE Team Emirates - XRG released not one, but two lineups for the Tour of Flanders scheduled this Sunday. The culprit is ninja Florian Vermeersch who disguised himself as Rui Oliveira and snuck into the announcement under false idendity...
The media team of race favourite Tadej Pogacar swiftly picked up on the obvious mistake and promptly posted a second selection, this time including the 26-year-old Belgian. Vermeersch will be an important piece in the puzzle which should come together as a second Flanders victory of the current world champion.
Vermeersch missed the whole spring last year with an injury, but in 2025 he is clearly in a good shape as evident from his 4th place at GP de Denain, 6th at Bredene Koksijde and solid showings at the cobbled classics of last week (24th at E3 Saxo Classic and 26th at Gent Wevelgem).
His absence would've been a heavy blow for Pogacar's ambition as the Slovenian will need all the manpower he can get to take on Mathieu van der Poel and get revenge for Milano-Sanremo. The Dutchman's squad may not be as star-filled, but their ability to execute orders in favor of their leader is the more clinical. And it includes a Vermeersch (Gianni) too.
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- The cherry-picked headline makes it sound like MvDP is making an arrogant statement, but reading his statement in full reveals that it's more of a cautious optimism.
KerisVroom04-04-2025 - Pride and overconfidence strike again. Come on Wout! What a bonehead. They had a royal flush in spades and folded the hand. He knows he’s not in his best form after recovering from all the injuries. These are not normal circumstances for a sprint. They should have played tactics and put Powless to the sword by individually attacking thus wearing him out to cover all the attacks. If they wore him out wout MAY have won. It’s sad to see a guy go from insane pride to whimpering dog like that. Yes Wout is under immense pressure, so make some wise and shrewd decisions buddy! Standing there on the podium in 2 or 3 spot he always has the look of a sourpuss sore loser. Show some class buddy! Better success next timeOnepiece04-04-2025
- Well said, Pogi!!!!!!Al04-04-2025
- Why do Ineos want him.? He cannot challenge the big four and they already have a ton of strong domestiquesabstractengineer04-04-2025
- As Wout said on Srava today "Things don't always go your way... but a flat white and peanut butter brownie can make up for a lot" Puts it in perspective!VgnRider04-04-2025
- Watch out Urska, I think he’s taken a liking to MVDP ;-)Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- Totally!Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- It will be interesting to see how he goes on the cobbles, so far he's looking very strong.awp04-04-2025
- if there is an actual weakness in wout even when completely healthy, it’s that he’s in his head too often. this has been pointed out many times by much more acute observers of cycling than ME, certainly. it may be that he’s been like this since he was a little kid. we are who we are. or that he was shaped by having faced van der poel SOOO many times. mvdp has zero second thoughts. he wastes no time at all on doubt. that has, in the past, led him to do some pretty insane things and make mistakes that wout would never have committed. but it also makes him a killer. you can see wout’s split seconds of doubt and hesitation everywhere in their head to head battles. those hesitations spill over into other races at times like dwars, when doubt creeps in. i believe that currently he is still coming back from physical problems due to injuries, but even when he’s full strength the mental game is an area of potential concern, AND potential improvement.OCexile03-04-2025
- Not only the public, just about every analyst and commentator had been piling it on. Under the circumstances I’d even say he’s showing real character. Not sure likeable Tadej would manage as well during a longer rough patch.Mistermaumau03-04-2025