2024-03-29 10:34:08
With Tadej Pogacar absent and Wout Van Aert in hospital, the way is clear for Mathieu van der Poel at the Tour of Flanders. The Dutchman can become on Sunday (to be followed from 1:35 p.m. on RTS 2) the seventh rider in history to win a third time, following 2020 and 2022.
The terrible fall which cost Van Aert multiple fractures on Wednesday deprives the second Monument of the year of a highly anticipated duel between the Belgian and his long-time rival, while the withdrawal of the Slovenian Pogacar, outgoing winner, had already taken away a little spice to the race.
The pass of three?
Today, more than ever, it looks like a cobbled boulevard for Van der Poel, especially since another outsider, Jasper Stuyven, also broke his collarbone on Wednesday and Mads Pedersen, scratched and bruised, also left there some feathers.
If he wins on Sunday, the grandson of Raymond Poulidor and son of Adrie, winner of the Tour of Flanders in 1986, would join Achiel Buysse, Fiorenzo Magni, Eric Leman, Johan Museeuw, Tom Boonen and Fabio Cancellara among the triple winners of the “Ronde”, with the prospect of aiming for a quadruple ever achieved by 2025. He is also seeking a fifth victory in a Monument to return to the level of Pogacar, the only active rider to have won so many.
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