The last 20km of the E3 Saxo Classic were subdued; if it were not for the cheers of fans braving the rain, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) could have been out on a solo training ride. The pitter-patter of supporters’ applause imitated the raindrops beginning to land on the Flandrian roads. With about a minute, and expanding, to Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Van der Poel, in a sight which has become more and more common over the last few seasons, was alone and his victory assured.
The script played out as we have witnessed before; Van der Poel, thanks to astute racing sense and bike handling skill, was present and correct right where he needed to be when the main move of the day was launched by Ineos Grenadiers, through Ben Turner and Josh Tarling with 84km to go. Three kilometres later on the Taainberg, he escaped with Pedersen and Ineos’ Filippo Ganna before, around 50 minutes later, a blistering attack on his beloved Oude Kwaremont left him alone, unmatched, and cruising through the Flemish drizzle.
His ceremonial march to a consecutive E3 titles may have been hushed, but only by the nervous anticipation of what is to come — the Classics’ ‘Holy Week’, the celestial period containing the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, wherein lies Van der Poel’s quest for Classics immortality.
Mathieu van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix 2024 (Photo: Zac Williams/SWpix)
If his swashbuckling Milan-Sanremo wasn’t enough of a forewarning, E3 was a message from one Classics god to another, his principal rival Tadej Pogačar. Despite its mutedness, the result reverberated across the cycling world and UAE Team Emirates will have taken note — when it comes to winning cobbled Classics, Van der Poel is the greatest of this generation — and possibly of any generation.
The Dutchman’s parade on Friday further highlighted something that has become more and more apparent — particularly after last year’s Flanders-Roubaix double — Tadej Pogačar is the only match for Van der Poel. Despite Pedersen’s valiant intent and Ineos’ creative aggression to set up Ganna, surely it is only the world champion that stands in the way of Van der Poel completing what no rider in the history of the sport has ever done, conquering the first three Monuments of the year? If he were to do so, he would also become the first cyclist to win De Ronde four times in their career and the first to win both Flanders and Roubaix in consecutive years. The holiest of Holy Weeks is on the horizon.
Pogačar’s decision to ride Paris-Roubaix and his subsequent skipping of E3 may have deprived us of an intriguing encounter at the race, but it serves to only exaggerate the anticipation for the mouthwatering cobbles showdown between the sport’s two best Classics riders. The Tour de France reigning champion on the start line of the Queen of the Classics has been top of the news agenda this week, and the battle, like at Sanremo, could be one for the ages.
Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel on the 2024 World Championships podium (Photo: Zac Williams/SWpix)
If Pogačar can’t stop Van der Poel, then his only obstacle may be chance or his own miscalculations. Friday’s muted procession to victory was only interrupted by the intermittent screeching of his disc brakes on the soaked roads of Belgium. He was understandably cautious around the 90-degree bends after almost crashing with 26km to go around a slippery corner. Fate or skill seems to keep both Pogačar and Van der Poel out of the bad luck that blights their other principal rivals, Jonas Vingegaard for Pogačar and Wout van Aert for Van der Poel.
As tends to be the case with sports’ generational talent, Pogačar and Van der Poel have changed the scripts of cycling — Pogačar has shown that a genuine all-rounder can win everything, and Van der Poel has made historically unpredictable races predictable. With the pair, one road world champion in 2023, the other in 2024, winning 13 of the last 18 Monuments, they truly hold dominion over the most important one-day races in cycling. Now more than ever, the best rider wins races. The cobbles of Holy Week will decide which of them reigns supreme.
