Mathieu van der Poel > Wout van Aert, Tadej Pogacar can win all five Monuments: Blazin’ Saddles on Flanders Week

Forget that it’s actually closer to a fortnight, so-called Flanders Week lived up to its expectation with four races of high-octane action over the cobbles and Belgian bergs played out under a variety of conditions and featuring some humdinging performances as well as some uncharacteristic wobbles.

Here are 10 talking points from a sea of potential takeaways…

Forced to sit out the Ronde van Vlaanderen after being struck down by Covid, Wout van Aert had the sight of his rival Mathieu van der Poel winning a second crown in his absence further compounded by receiving an alert from Strava shortly afterwards informing him that the Dutchman had taken his KOM for the key Koppenberg-Steenbeekdries-Taaienberg section.

Talk about a double whammy. And to think that everything was going Van Aert’s way at the start of Flanders Week – only for Van der Poel to pull almost singlehandedly the rug from underneath Jumbo-Visma’s feet. That arm-in-arm one-two with Christophe Laporte at E3 now seems an age away, with Jumbo-Visma following it up with two more second places through Laporte (in Gent-Wevelgem) and Tiesj Benoot (at Dwars door Vlaanderen).

Opting to keep his powder dry before the Ronde, Van Aert skipped Dwars. He had good reason: for all his swashbuckling aggression at Gent-Wevelgem, his efforts caught up with him and he faded towards the finish before handing the reins over to teammate Laporte. But a positive Covid test meant Van Aert was not able to challenge Van der Poel in Flanders, the indomitable Dutchman following up his textbook Dwars win with a brave victory in the Ronde over Tadej Pogacar – a victory so emphatic that it relegated the Slovenian to fourth in a two-horse race.

And so, having only been back in the saddle for a few weeks following his extended winter break and injury layoff, Van der Poel returns to the top of the pack as the man to beat in the spring classics. You pity his opponents at the Amstel Gold Race and Paris-Roubaix over the next fortnight.

Bradley Wiggins was among the numerous commentators who felt that the Belgian champion’s absence at the Tour of Flanders may work in Jumbo-Visma’s favour. The logic was clear enough: no longer in possession of the outright favourite, the Dutch team would be able to throw men up the road – as they did through Nathan Van Hooydonck – and give their in-form lieutenants, Laporte and Benoot, free reign to ride their own races.

We’ll never know how much his crash with 80km remaining affected Laporte’s chances on Sunday, but the Frenchman was nevertheless Jumbo-Visma’s highest finisher in ninth as a select chase group came home 48 seconds adrift. Thirteenth place Benoot crossed the line 14 seconds later.

Both Laporte (twice) and Benoot took second places for Jumbo-Visma in Flanders Week and so they were clearly in good nick. But without Van Aert as a focal point, neither was able to up their game enough to stick with the big-hitters once Pogacar made his decisive move on the first Kwaremont-Paterberg double and then the Koppenberg.

Van Aert already underlined at Paris-Nice just how important he is to Primoz Roglic’s stage race ambitions. While new arrivals Benoot and Laporte have reinvigorated Jumbo-Visma’s roster for the classics and given their leader – who last year found himself marked out of contention too regularly – a new lease of life, there’s no denying that the team still heavily rely on a fit Van Aert to get results.

Winner of both E3 and De Ronde last year, Kasper Asgreen finished 10th and 23rd in those same races in 2022 either side of a 32nd place in Gent-Wevelgem. That Asgreen also found himself as the highest placed Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider in all three races adds to the gloom for the misfiring Belgian team. Their luck didn’t get much better in the Dane’s absence, with Jannik Steimle’s 14th place the best result for Quick-Step at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

Flanders Week and the cobbles classics are meant to be where Quick-Step are in their element, and yet on their favoured terrain and in front of their own fans, the Wolfpack were reduced to a disparate flock of sheep. No more was this evident than on the Koppenberg on Sunday when Asgreen dropped a chain near the top. As he struggled to sort out the issue, teammate Zdenek Stybar rode past and shook his head in frustration. The Czech rider clearly considered stopping for a moment but then pressed on, half-heartedly, with the key move missed and race already out of reach.

There was talk in the days ahead of the Ronde that Julian Alaphilippe may return earlier than scheduled to make an appearance in a race that he lit up on his debut in 2020 (before his acrobatic crash handed the initiative to Van der Poel and Van Aert). The Frenchman apparently even rode some of the bergs in training – but then made his way to the Basque Country to take part in Itzulia instead.

Out since Tirreno-Adriatico, the world champion’s absence has been keenly felt by Quick-Step. He is to them what Van Aert is to Jumbo-Visma. But while the likes of Laporte and Benoot have raised their game, Asgreen and his teammates have been unable to pick Quick-Step up off the floor.

In stage races, the wins keep coming. But the Wolfpack are experiencing an unenviable barren run in classics and one which needs redressing. Amstel Gold and Paris-Roubaix can’t come soon enough.

If his four attacks on the Poggio could not get rid of his rivals in Milan-San Remo then his brutal accelerations on the cobbled bergs in Flanders despatched everyone except the biggest dangerman – and would have won him that KOM had Pogacar chosen to sync his debut Flanders to Strava.

It was an incredible display of dominance from a rider mature beyond his years – a rider who bounced back from his midweek miscalculation at Dwars door Vlaanderen to come within a whisker of becoming the first rider in 40 years to win the Ronde at the first attempt.

His baffling self-relegation to fourth in a two-horse race provided an enthralling ending none of us expected to see – but it was, on reflection, welcome proof of the 23-year-old’s mortality. So brilliant is Pogacar that we almost expect the ridiculous and the impossible from him – and in this case that’s exactly what we got, albeit the other side of the coin.

How he managed to shoot himself in the foot so emphatically will remain a mystery – but it was a show of humanness from a rider who, along with this current generation of Van Aerts and Van der Poels, is making the sport an utter joy to follow.

Anyway, it’s not as if Pogacar has no form in botching a sprint in the final throes of a Monument – just cast your eyes back to Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2020 and look beyond the Alaphilippe circus… Pogacar bounced back pretty comfortably after that setback so we can expect him to put things right soon enough in Flanders. Which will be fantastic to see.

While the likes of Van Aert and Van der Poel are able to enjoy their time in the limelight during the annual three-week July jamboree in France, neither pose any significant thread to Pogacar’s continued quest for yellow. But in the past few weeks, the Slovenian has shown that he, on the other hand, can be a worthy opponent to these same rivals in their own back garden.

Pogacar already sandwiched his second Tour win last year with dual Monumental scalps at Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia. And he’s done more than enough this past month – with fifth in San Remo and fourth in Flanders – to show that he’s a champion elect in those two particular races. Given his ability on the cobbles, it wouldn’t be inconceivable for him to excel in Paris-Roubaix one day too – perhaps once a record-breaking six Tour title is in the bag.

By the same token, you could make an argument for Van der Poel or Van Aert one day becoming factors in Liege or Lombardia. But Pogacar already looks the real deal in four of five Monuments and he’s surely the most likely current rider to join Rik van Looy, Roger De Vlaeminck and Eddy Merckx as winners of all five of cycling’s showpiece classics.

Van der Poel’s resounding return has understandably stolen a little bit of the thunder from Biniam Girmay, who earlier in Flanders Week made history as the first African rider to win a cobbled classic at Gent-Wevelgem. This important result for African cycling was a long time coming and followed a series of strong performances from the 23-year-old rising star.

If Girmay made a bold choice in joining a Belgian team then Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert showed just how right they were to put their faith in the Eritrean. There is a huge amount of red tape involved for WorldTour teams to sign African riders – as shown by Girmay’s sudden return home following his breakthrough win. He wasn’t simply returning to see his wife and son, but doing so to fulfil visa requirements that don’t allow him to spend more than three consecutive months away.

It's high time more WorldTour teams saw the value of helping develop African cycling for there are many more Girmays out there ready to make the step up. Girmay will now become a marked man in races – and quite rightly. It will be interesting to see where his career goes from here and which team he joins once his contract at Intermarche runs out in 2024. What a statement it would be were Ineos Grenadiers, Jumbo-Visma or Quick-Step to take control of the next phase of his development. Come to think of it, Quick-Step are looking a bit thin on the classics front right now…

It certainly didn’t look like it was going to be Dylan van Baarle’s day when the Dutchman suffered a mechanical only to swap bikes for a steed that already had a flat front tyre. But he bounced back from that team technical own goal by coming close to pulling off a surprise win on Sunday as he swept past Pogacar to snare second place behind Van der Poel in Flanders.

The 29-year-old was the best placed Ineos Grenadier rider at E3 with eighth, while the British team were very much in the mix in Dwars door Vlaanderen with Tom Pidcock taking third place and Ben Turner making the top 10.

Pidcock’s cobbles classics campaign was derailed by the digestive issues that hampered his Milan-San Remo, but the likes of Turner, Van Baarle, Jhonatan Narvaez and Magnus Sheffield have been quietly impressive on the whole. It’s an inexperienced unit held together by an old hand like Van Baarle and an upcoming star in Pidcock. The ingredients are clearly there but perhaps they need a little seasoning before coming to the boil.

After winning the first Monument of the season through Matej Mohoric, Bahrain-Victorious threw everything at the Tour of Flanders despite being the underdogs in a kennel of pedigree specimens.

Jan Tratnik, so impressive as a foil for countryman Mohoric at San Remo, had already showed his form with another ninth place at Dwars door Vlaanderen. The Slovenian put in a big attack on the Paterberg with 52km remaining before handing the reins over to teammate Fred Wright over the top, the 22-year-old Briton marking his debut by riding clear with Van Baarle.

Once Pogacar and Van der Poel made things a two-horse race on the Koppenberg, Bahrain Victorious still had cards to play with Tratnik and Wright joined by Dylan Teuns in the chase. The Belgian almost made the junction on the home straight as he took sixth place just two seconds behind Van der Poel, while Wright was seventh and Tratnik twelfth. A solid return for a team of supposed outsiders.

Despite suffering cramps as he chased back on with Van Baarle, France’s Valentin Madouas was rewarded for not giving up by securing one of the most unlikely podium places in recent years. Catching out Pogacar in a pincer attack as he and Van Baarle returned at speed, the 25-year-old recorded his best result in eight appearances to date in Monuments.

Madouas has taken a huge leap this year with seventh in E3 and 11th in Dwars door Vlaanderen, capped with a well deserved third place in Flanders. Going forward, this will give Groupama-FDJ a new card to play in the Flemish races while, for Madouas, it is proof that he’s much more than a promising climber in the mould of David Gaudu. The challenge for Madouas and Marc Madiot now will be to build on these performances in the knowledge that he can compete with the best.

Even more impressive for Groupama-FDJ was the Swiss powerhouse Stefan Kung, who found himself very much in the mix in three out of four of the races in Flanders Week. Third in E3 (with a broken chain stay, no less) was followed by 36th in Gent-Wevelgem, sixth in Dwars door Vlaanderen and fifth in the Ronde, as Kung came home just two seconds down on Van der Poel after a spirited fight back in the wake of teammate Madouas.

If this marks the first year that time trial specialist Kung has really focused on the cobbled classics, then it’s fair to say that the cobbled race best suited to his strengths – Paris-Roubaix – is still to come. Given his form and his status just below the top-tier billing, Kung is in a superb position to pull off the biggest win of his career in the Hell of the North on Easter Sunday.

Victory in Roubaix would be a thing of beauty for the reaction of Kung’s fan club alone…