Tour of Flanders – Pogacar’s error, Madouas’ cramps and Van der Poel’s strength: The sprint deciphered

Act I: VDP and “Pogi” play with fire

From Old Quaremont, the cause was heard: this 106th “Round” was going to be played between the two strong men expected at the start, Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel. The duo released the last resistants, including the Frenchman Valentin Madouas. At the top of the Paterberg, the last difficulty of the race, the Dutchman and the Slovenian have a lead of around thirty seconds. At three kilometers, their margin is still about 25 seconds. But the two men will start looking at each other. A little. Then a lot. Frankly too much.

Tadej Pogacar no longer takes over and the game of fools begins. Much to VDP’s surprise: “It’s amazing that he only took care of me and not of those who came back behind. It was crazy to see this scenario with a sprint of four and not of two. In the endless finishing straight, the camera initially gives the impression of crushing the distance. But at 500 meters, while the two leading men are still in tactical mode, it becomes clear that Valentin Madouas and Dylan van Baarle will return, transforming the duo into a quartet.It was far, far from obvious a handful of minutes earlier.

Act II: Van der Poel forced to throw from a distance

In 2021, it was said that Mathieu van der Poel had thrown too far against Kasper Asgreen. In the lead in the last kilometer, a habit for him for three years now since he had found himself in the same situation against Van Aert in 2020, the Dutchman had stood up on the pedals more than 200 meters from the line . A heresy after such a long and hard race as the Tour of Flanders. When Valentin Madouas and Dylan Van Baarle come back to him and Tadej Pogacar, does “MVDP” think about it?

Probably not. “They were coming extremely fast from behind so I decided to throw from far“, will say the winner. It is 250 meters from the goal that van der Poel accelerates, therefore pressed by the speed of the duo which returns. The decisive decision. His strength and his explosiveness allow him to stay in front. Dylan van Baarle does not Van der Poel was not a good enough sprinter to go up and Valentin Madouas stumbled between the last 150 and 100 meters.Finally in front from the start to the end of this sprint, van der Poel maneuvered to perfection.Experience, perhaps.

Act III: Madouas, the great hope and the blow of the cramp

If Valentin Madouas had won the bet, or his friend Dylan van Baarle, the strongest would not have won this Tour of Flanders, but the sequence would have had something tasty after the near standstill of Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel . The French believed in it, in any case. Very strong. When VDP decided to (finally) launch the sprint, Madouas and Van Baarle arrived launched. The Groupama-FDJ rider, ahead of his former hunting companion, swallows Pogacar and only has MVDP ahead of him. Thirty years after Jacky Durand, we begin to dream of a fourth Habs on the list.

Unfortunately, at the worst moment, his legs will extinguish this mad hope. “In the sprint, I cramp when I put myself in a dancer, he explained to the microphone of Eurosport. With the speed I had, I really believed it for a moment, but the legs spoke and told me to sit down.” He held on as long as he could but once his buttocks rested on the saddle, he no longer had enough speed to hope to raise his arms. Skipped by Dylan van Baarle, Valentin Madouas however retained third place ahead of Pogacar to sign the first French podium since Sylvain Chavanel in 2011.

Act IV: “A junior error” for the trapped Pogacar

Tadej Pogacar is the man of this 106th Tour of Flanders. Even Mathieu van der Poel recognized it. And yet “Pogi” will not be at the podium ceremony. “He made a junior mistake“, judged Robbie McEwen who knows a lot about sprints. What happened? When Madouas and Van Baarle return, Tadej Pogacar is in the wheel of Mathieu van der Poel, No doubt he hopes for the surprise but the trap closes on him.

His last look back 250 meters from goal is not enough and when his opponent throws, “Pogi” does not know where Madouas and Van Baarle will come from. The first overtakes him on the left, the second on the right. When Van Baarle cuts him off, the case is settled. Pogacar is beaten and shows a sign of annoyance. Calmed, he returned to this final: “I was very disappointed at the time. I couldn’t do my sprint, I was locked up. But that’s cycling, sometimes you get stuck, sometimes you don’t. I didn’t blame anyone. I may have given that impression but I was mad at myself because I couldn’t do anything in the last 100 meters“.