Pogacar wins Tour of Flanders – On Sunday, the reigning world champion Tadej Pogacar won the cobbled classic Tour of Flanders on a second time with another ferocious onslaught.
As he soloed to win after launching himself on the third and last ascent on the Oude Kwaremont, Pogacar had ample opportunity to lift his arms over his head and take up the acclaim of the audience. Pogacar wins Tour of Flanders
Pogacar wins Tour of Flanders
Defending winner Mathieu van der Poel was unable to keep up with the 3-time Tour de France winner as he launched his final and decisive charge on the penultimate climb, some eighteen kilometers away from the finish.
Upon winning the race, the cyclist from UAE Team Emirates expressed his immense joy at donning this jersey. “The plan was to begin at Oude Kwaremont, and we stayed true to that plan despite a few team crashes… but we still managed to make it.”
In a four-man race for second place, Jasper Stuyven and Wout van Aert were slightly ahead of Van der Poel and Mads Pedersen, who finished one minute and one second ahead of Pogacar.
An incredibly difficult one-day event in cycling, the Tour of Flanders (also called “De Ronde” or “The Tour”) has been going strong since its inception in 1913. The 268.9-kilometer (167-mile) course this year included multiple cobblestone portions and sixteen short but brutal hills.
After his triumph in 2023, Pogacar achieved victory number two. Despite Van der Poel’s record-tying third victory, the Slovenian skipped out on defending his crown last year. Pogacar wins Tour of Flanders
The anticipated rematch between Pogacar versus Van der Poel, the winner of the most recent Milan-San Remo, did not disappoint.
In the last fifty kilometers (31 miles), the two riders played cat and mouse, with Van der Poel surviving an early collision and Pogacar leaving the Dutch rider and the other contenders in the dust.
Together with the Giro di Lombardia, the five most esteemed one-day races in cycling—the Tour of Flanders, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix, and Liege–Bastogne–Liege—are considered “monuments” of the sport.
Even more difficult than Flanders’ cobbles are those at Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo, the two races that Pogacar has failed to win thus far. The arduous French classic will be Pogacar’s first attempt next Sunday.
“It’s a totally different race, but I’m up for the challenge and will give it my all,” Pogacar stated. “This Flanders looks better on me, but I could be wrong.” Pogacar wins Tour of Flanders
