Another blistering attack from Tadej Pogacar has seen the peerless world champion win the Tour of Flanders cobbled classic for the second time.
Pogacar had plenty of time to raise his arms above his head and soak up the applause of the crowd as he soloed to victory after taking off on the third and final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont on Sunday.
The three-time Tour de France champion had launched his last and decisive attack on the penultimate climb – about 18km from the finish — and not even defending champion Mathieu van der Poel could stay on his wheel.
Pogacar finished one minute and one second ahead of Mads Pedersen, who edged out van der Poel in a four-man sprint for second, just ahead of Wout van Aert and Jasper Stuyven in a stellar chasing group.
One of cycling’s most challenging one-day races and first held in 1913, the one-day ‘Monument’ classic is run over a brutal 268.9km route featuring 16 short but punishing climbs and several cobblestone sections.
It was a second victory for Pogacar after he won in 2023. The Slovenian didn’t defend his title last year, when van der Poel claimed a record-equalling third win.
It was expected to be another episode of the great rivalry between Pogacar and van der Poel, who had won the recent Milan-Sanremo classic, and so it proved.
The duo played cat and mouse with each other in the final 50km with each matching the other’s attacks before Pogacar left the Dutch cyclist and the other hopefuls in the distance.
The leading Australian among the 113 finishers – another 62 didn’t even make it to the end – was Jayco AlUla’s evergreen star Michael Matthews, who came home 13th, but two minutes 19 seconds behind his pal Pogacar.
The Tour of Flanders is one of the “Monuments” of cycling — the five most prestigious one-day events in the sport — along with Milan-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia.
The two Pogacar has yet to win are Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix, which has even tougher cobbles than Flanders. Pogacar is going to attempt the gruelling French classic next Sunday.
https://thewest.com.au/sport/cycling/magnificent-pogacar-solos-to-tour-of-flanders-triumph-c-18285564
