We'll be able to win a Monument: Zeeman confident despite van Aert's hurdles

Wout van Aert won the E3 Saxo Classic last season, which is the race which replicates the Tour of Flanders the best. However he hasn't yet managed to win the cobbled monument, or Paris-Roubaix, and Merijn Zeeman believes it comes down to special riders such as Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar.

"In a classic, the influence of the team may be less than in a Grand Tour. However, I'm sure we'll be able to win a Monument. We have all the ingredients for that in-house. Without top riders like Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar, Wout would probably have won the Tour of Flanders a few times," Zeeman shared with In de Leiderstrui. The Belgian has already proven countless times to be a rider strong enough to win one of those two monuments, but for one reason or another it hasn't clicked. In Flanders he was second in a sprint against van der Poel in 2020, and in 2022 when he was to go in as the man to beat, he was forced out because of a Covid-19 infection.

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At Paris-Roubaix the story is not too different, he finished second in 2022 and third last year, having punctured during an attack on the final crucial cobbled sector. Luck was not always on the side of the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider, who also accumulated podium results at Milano-Sanremo, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the World Championships over the past few years. Consistency is assured, but two generational riders occasionally get the best of him.

"Those two are so extremely good. That makes winning a classic even more difficult. This generation of cyclists is extraordinarily good," Zeeman admits. "In a man-to-man situation at the end of a race it is very difficult to beat Mathieu or Tadej. That applies to the entire peloton, but also to us." This spring the challenge will be the same, as van Aert is set to face off with the two at the Tour of Flanders, but only van der Poel in Roubaix. However, his biggest rival has recently defeated him on several occasions during cyclocross races and looks to be in the form of his life over the past 12 months.

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