Wout van Aert is the man who can take on phenomenal Pogacar and Van der Poel: "He is meticulously preparing for Flanders and Roubaix"
Cycling
As expected, Milano-Sanremo turned out to be a two-man show of world champion Tadej Pogacar who challenged his predecessor - Mathieu van der Poel. Third time however was not the charm for the Slovenian who tried impossible and win with an attack already on Cipressa. In any case both men seem be in top shape, which bears a great promise towards the upcoming cobbled Classics.
"The question is what this means for the rest of the spring," former Lotto team manager Marc Sergeant writes in his analysis for Het Nieuwsblad. "Van der Poel may have emerged as the winner of the duel on Saturday, but that also had to do with the course. On the Poggio, Pogacar cannot drop the Dutchman because that climb is not steep enough."
According to Sergeant, the world champion's chances at the Tour of Flanders will be far greater with notably steeper climbs on the menu. "On the Oude Kwaremont or Paterberg, the Slovenian can play his qualities much better. Van der Poel is super explosive, but he has to drag a lot more kilos up. And give Pogacar fifteen seconds and they won't see him again."
Wout Van Aert
"But let's hope that we don't watch a duel between Pogacar and Van der Poel every time. And that they get more opposition," Sergeant continues. Who should that come from? The Belgian points to the greatest absentee of the concluded La Primavera: Wout van Aert.
The Visma | Lease a Bike rider didn't find his best legs at the early season Classics and therefore returned to the drawing board: "He is meticulously preparing for the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix on the Teide. To be able to compete with those men. Only: the level of Pogacar and Van der Poel is exceptionally high," Sergeant concludes.
Yes, I think he still has a lot to say in road cycling. In the CX races he showed a very good gear but... the problem was essentially his NERVOUSNESS then he took bad decisions in finding the best strategies and paths. He needs confidence (calm down) and maybe a very good preparation gave him that.
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- My issue is that this site proactively solicits the commentary of one disgraced doper after another. It's like they can't find anyone who didn't leave the sport under a cloud of shame. I think I'm done with this site.critguy26-03-2025
- The finale of this race was an absolute mess, and the last crash that took out 1/2 of the field was caused when a double width road very suddenly funneled into a single lane, and riders had nowhere to go. I find it amazing how some of these courses get approved in the first place. So much for the UCI's campaign for improved rider safety, because if they actually cared, the organizers wouldn't have been allowed to run the finale on this parcours.
santiagobenites26-03-2025 - I hope Wout can come back. He has had 3 terrible crashes--not on par with Froome or Bernal, but at his level just a fraction of a percent is all that separates the grand champions of this new generation. Even if he is back all the way physically, those abrupt confrontations with pavement and mortality take a psychic toll, especially for a father of young kids.
Barney26-03-2025 - Everyone was so keen on free speech for a while, what happened ;-) But seriously, the problem is not so much that he gave his view as that someone follows it and spreads it, not totally unlike the schoolkids running US war games at present ;-)Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- We'll see what happens this year, hopefully he finds himself a little stronger.awp26-03-2025
- awp, the way and races he races, he probably doesn’t feel like he needs that many or specific race days before the Tour. His program isn’t very different from other years.Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- No, he just realises he’s not a one-day racer so why should he force himself?Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- Sacrificing E3 and G-W that were planned seems like he was hedging his options and only decided to do it after not winning MSR. Would he have planned to do all 5 and if so why hold back on announcing P-R if it wasn’t conditional? Guess people will get active with predictions now :-).Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- The MTB World title - there is no such thing. However, there are World titles in XCC, XCO, XCM, XCE, Enduro, Downhill......... He's after the World title in XCO, but could probably win the XCC title too, as his record is still better than anybody else, and he hasn't ridden an XCC World Cup since May 2021. Ten wins from twelve races says it all..... However, the XCO course is Crans-Montana is technical - he will surely need plenty of time back on the MTB, both training, and racing, otherwise it's going to be another doomed ambition.wipperman9526-03-2025
- Sweet. I wonder who's up on the next episode of Disgraced Ex-Doper Offers an Unsolicited Opinion?critguy26-03-2025