Fabian Cancellara's Classics Column: Sizing up the Big Three for Tour of Flanders

Fabian Cancellara examines the Tour of Flanders favourites
Fabian Cancellara examines the Tour of Flanders favourites (Image credit: Getty Images)

The Tour of Flanders is just around the corner and we have not one, not two, but three big favourites. That's something special already, and I'm super excited for Sunday - I think it's going to be a fantastic moment for our sport. 

It is rare to have three guys, three superstars, all on such a high level for the Classics. You often have one guy who is looking stronger than the rest, or perhaps a rivalry between two - I would know something about that - but to have three guys like Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, and Tadej Pogačar doing battle will bring a whole new dimension to the race. 

Fabian Cancellara

Fabian Cancellara is an ex-professional cyclist who raced from 2001 to 2016 for Mapei, Fassa Bortolo, CSC and Trek. One of a select trio of riders to have won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders three times, alongside arch rival Tom Boonen and Johan Museeuw, he is the only racer who can add the Strade Bianche triple to that glittering statistic – first across the line in Siena at four year intervals between 2008 and 2016."Spartacus" was also a formidable time trialist: four times world champion, twice Olympic champion,  his final race as a professional cyclist came in the TT at the Rio Olympics in 2016, where he triumphed over second-placed Tom Dumoulin by a staggering 47 seconds. Alongside various business interests – and being a Cyclingnews columnist, of course – Cancellara is a founder of the Tudor Pro Cycling team, currently racing at UCI Pro Team level.