Tour of Flanders 2022: Who’s riding? When is it on TV? Can Tadej Pogacar rival Mathieu van der Poel on his debut

All eyes will fall on the tried-and-tested Oude Kwaremont-Paterberg cobbled combo this weekend as both the men’s and women’s peloton take to the Belgian bergs for the Tour of Flanders. Also known as the Ronde van Vlaanderen, the race runs for its 106th edition for the men, with the women tackling the famous ‘helligen’ for a 19th time.

If either edition matches the drama laid on by Matej Mohoric going up and down the Poggio in the first Monument of the season, Milan-San Remo, then cycling fans are in for a treat – especially with the prospect of Paris-Roubaix, back in its spring-time slot, coming just one week later. Oh, and with both snow and rain forecast during the race… plus Mathieu van der Poel seemingly back to his and a Pogacar-shaped curveball - well, we're in for a treat.

This Sunday, 3rd April 2022. The peloton rolls out of Antwerp at 09:00 UK time and the race is expected to finish around 15:45 UK time.

There sure is: the 19th edition of the women’s Ronde starts and finishes a little later than the men’s race, with the peloton leaving Oudenaarde at 12:25 and returning at around 16:45 UK time.

Eurosport has you covered for both races, with blanket coverage running from 08:30 to 18:00 UK time bookended by The Breakaway. You can also watch the races on discovery+ and GCN+.

Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) pulled off a surprise by out-lasting Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) in a two-up sprint in Oudenaarde last year. The Dutchman attacked on the Oude Kwaremont to distance Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma). Van der Poel was joined by Asgreen on the front, and it was the Dane who crested the Paterberg in pole position before the duo rode in tandem to the finish.

Belgium’s Greg van Avermaet (Ag2R-Citroen) pipped compatriot Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) to take the third spot on the podium, crossing the line 32 seconds down.

In the women’s race, Dutch superstar Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) soloed to glory to take her second win in the Ronde exactly a decade after the first. Germany’s Lisa Brennauer (Ceratizit-WNT) beat Australia’s Grace Brown (Team BikeExchange) in the battle for second place when a chasing quintet came home 26 seconds later.

He is. Which should be strange given that no reigning Tour de France champion has taken on the Ronde since Eddy Merckx in 1975 - unless (controversy klaxon) you count Lance Armstrong in 2002 and 2005.

The Cannibal won his second Ronde eight months after he had ridden to his fifth Tour triumph. Some riders who have ridden the Ronde have gone on to win the Tour later in the same season – Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault come to mind – but it rarely happens the other way around. Usually because if you want to win the world’s biggest bike race in July, you don’t do something so stupid as train on the Koppenberg in race circumstances just months earlier…

But Pogacar is no usual rider. The 23-year-old double Tour winner is looking for fresh challenges – and having won both Il Lombardia and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in the same season as the Tour, plus put in a competitive effort for firth place at Milan-San Remo, he clearly feels the unique challenges of the Ronde suit his strengths. And so he might.

It may be his first major professional outing over the cobbled bergs, but Pogacar came 15th in the Ronde van Vlaanderen juniors in 2018 off the back of two appearances in Gent-Wevelgem juniors in 2016 and 2017. Having already notched seven wins this season – including Strade Bianche – it will be interesting to see how the UAE Team Emirates leader fares on Sunday. First up, some fine tuning over the cobbles on Wednesday at Dwars door Vlaanderen... where he came an impressive, albeit frustrating, tenth.

In the continued absence of world champion Julian Alaphilippe, defending champion Kasper Asgreen spearheads a nevertheless solid Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team with the likes of Yves Lampaert, Florian Senechal and Zdenek Stybar in support. The Belgian team are in dire need of a result after the opening two races of Flanders Week; Asgreen was their highest finisher in both E3 and Gent-Wevelgem, 10th and 32nd respectively, while Belgian Jannik Steimle's 14th place on Wednesday was their best result at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

If Wout van Aert found himself marked out last year then things are very different in 2022 following Jumbo-Visma’s recruitment drive over the winter. Fellow Belgian Tiesj Benoot (second at Dwars door Vlaanderen) and Frenchman Christophe Laporte (second in both E3 and Gent-Wevelgem) have proven themselves to be highly capable lieutenants – and options in their own right. And with Van Aert sitting out Dwars door Vlaanderen this week, he should be fresher than he was at Gent-Wevelgem in the business end of the race. At least, that was until his team admitted on Thursday that Van Aert was a potential doubt because of illness...

Mathieu van der Poel brought his season start a little earlier than scheduled and impressed with third place in Milan-San Remo. A victory last week in the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali showed that the Dutchman is in good condition and, after winning Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday, he will lead Alpecin-Fenix’s drive alongside Jasper Philipsen as he bids to repeat his 2020 triumph.

Trek-Segafredo have a strong trio of leaders in Jasper Stuyven, Mads Pedersen and Quinn Simmons, while Belgian veterans Greg van Avermaet (Ag2R-Citroen) and Sep Vanmarcke (Israel-PremierTech) return to a race they have always enjoyed but never won.

Other names of note include Oliver Naesen (Ag2R-Citroen), Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies), Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers), Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco), Gianni Moscon (Astana Qazaqstan), Heinrich Haussler (Bahrain Victorious) and Imanol Erviti (Movistar). Milan-San Remo winner Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) makes his second appearance in the Ronde, while British hopes lie primarily with a Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) who has been suffering with digestive issues since his San Remo DNF, but looked sharp in finishing third at Dwars door Vlaanderen ahead of signing a new five-year contract.

Other former winners taking to the start are Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EastPost), Niki Terpstra (TotalEnergies) and Alexander Kristoff (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) but Philippe Gilbert (Lotto Soudal) sits this one out while Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) had pulled out while his struggles for fitness continue.

There’s also no place for Gent-Wevelgem winner Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert), the man of the moment taking some time off to visit his family in Eritrea while meeting his current visa requirements.

In the women’s race, Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) will be joined by fellow previous winners Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (Team SD Worx), Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ), Marianne Vos and Coryn Labecki (both Jumbo-Visma), Elisa Longo Borghini and Ellen van Dijk (both Trek-Segafredo).

Also taking to the start are Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering (both Team SD Worx), Katarzyna Niewuadoma (Canyon-Sram), Lizzie Banks (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), Grace Brown and Cecilie Ludwig (both FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange-Jayco), Lorena Wiebes and Pfeiffer Georgi (both Team DSM), Lisa Brennauer (Ceratizit-WNT), Susanne Andersen (Uno-X Pro Cycling) and the Dwars door Vlaanderen winner, Italian youngster Chiara Consonni (Valcar-Travel & Service).

Starting in Antwerp and ending in Oudenaard, the men’s route is 275.5km long with the first of 18 cobbled sections coming after 100km. The first climb comes at the halfway point with the first of three ascents of the Oude Kwaremont. The climbs then come thick and fast with an uphill test pretty much every 10km, starting with the Kortekeer and the Achterberg, then, after the Holleweg cobbles, the Wolvenberg, ahead of the Kerkgate and Jakerij cobbles.

A feisty 15km section crams together the Molenberg, Marlboroughstraat, Berendries and Valkenberg ahead of the first of two Oude Kwaremont-Paterberg combinations. The Oude Kwaremont is a long 2.2km drag with a gentle average gradient of 4% while the Paterberg packs a punch of 12.9% over its short 360m length. This marks the point the race really comes alive – the equivalent, say, of Milan-San Remo’s tre capi climbs heralding the Cipressa and Poggio finale.

The steep and narrow Koppenberg is followed by the climbs of Steenbeekdries and Taaienberg all within 10 frantic game-changing kilometres. Get distanced here and it’s game over, especially with the Kruisberg-Hotond climb followed by the second and decisive Kwaremont-Paterberg combo ahead of a flat 13km run to the finish.

The women’s race starts and finishes in Oudenaard and includes 11 hills and six cobbled sectors crammed into 158.6km with the climax featuring the same Oude Kwaremont-Paterberg combo as the men, ahead of the flat 13.3km run to the line.

Surely this is the year Wout van Aert finally wins the Ronde? Ninth in his debut in 2018, runner-up behind his big rival Mathieu van der Poel in 2020, and a frustrating sixth last year, the Belgian champion has been on scintillating form this year and, with a stronger team behind him, all the signs are pointing towards him standing atop the podium on Sunday. At least, until Van der Poel's midweek tour de force at Dwars door Vlaanderen and Jumbo-Visma's announcement on Thursday that "there is a chance" that their talisman will miss out owing to illness.

We’ll know it’s been a fantastic race if Van Aert, Van der Poel and debutant Tadej Pogacar are all in the mix. How about that for a top three - and you can insert Tom Pidcock in Van Aert's place should the hot favourite not take to the start. The only additional potential curveball is the weather: after the recent warm patch the temperature drops down to single figures with a mix of rain and snow on the cards. Lovely.

Irrespective of the weather, Annemiek van Vleuten, meanwhile, has the experience and legs to become the first women in history to win three editions of the Ronde. But SD Worx have power in numbers and could place either Chantal van den Broek-Blaak or Demi Vollering on the top step. And if Van Vleuten can win a second a decade after her first, then surely Marianne Vos could do the same nine years after her first Ronde win in 2013. So… Van Vleuten, Vollering and Vos – in any order.