Less than a week since his victory at Milan-San Remo, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) once again stole the show at E3 Saxo Classic with a solo victory into Harelbeke.
The Dutchman made his winning attack out of a five-rider breakaway over the Oude Kwaremont and slowly pushed out his lead throughout the final 40km of the race, over the Karnemelkbeekstraat and the Tiegemberg, crossing the line with 1:07 ahead of runner-up Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and 2:05 ahead of third-placed Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers).
The five riders in the initial breakaway included Van der Poel, Pedersen and Ganna who had bridged across to Aimé De Gendt (Cofidis) and Casper Pedersen (Soudal Quick-Step) earlier in the race on the Taaienberg.
The five riders worked together to maintain a gap that hovered about one minute ahead of a six-rider chase group. However, that cohesion crumbled when Van der Poel made his powerful solo attack over the Kwaremont, forcing gaps to gradually open up between his previous breakaway companions, as he soloed to the day's win.
"I'm very, very happy. We had a tough race with team, but I have to thank my whole team for the amazing job they did today. I was really motivated to finish it off," Van der Poel said at the finish.
Van der Poel told Dutch media soon afterwards that he wasn't happy that teams rode up front after he was stuck behind a crash in the opening 10 kilometres, four riders having to abandon the race in the process.
"In the beginning we were behind a crash and some teams felt it was necessary to take advantage of that," he said, somewhat irritated.
"The team had to ride all day because of this. I felt a bit obliged to try and finish it off afterwards. I was very motivated. I went quite deep, but I'm happy that I was able to reward them with a victory."
Mads Pederseon (Lidl-Trek) rides solo to second place (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
The peloton tackled 17 'bergs' and several sections of cobblestone roads across the 208.6 kilometre route from Harelbeke and back at the E3 Saxo Classic.
The challenging course took the riders east through Oudenaarde into the Flemish Ardennes, including the key Tour of Flanders climbs; the Paterberg and Oude Kwaremont in the final 50km with the Tiegemberg the last climb inside 21km of the one-day race.
Nervousness in the peloton and an early crash took down four riders who were forced to abandon just 10km into the race - Gil Gelders, Jordi Warlop and Dries Van Gestel, all from Soudal-QuickStep, along with Kevin Vermaerke from Picnic-PostNL. All were transported to hospital in Waregem for further medical examination.
A general view of the peloton passing through Leenstraat (Image credit: Getty Images)
The carnage caused significant splits among the peloton and a three-rider breakaway emerged that included Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Julius van den Berg (Picnic PostNL) and Rory Townsend (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team).
They gained nearly a minute on the splintered peloton behind, where a reduced group of 50 chased to try and shut down the gap. However, major contenders Van der Poel, Ganna and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) were caught even further back in a group nearly four minutes behind.
But the speeds in the peloton reached an average of 50 kph, and as the race hit the first series of climbs over the La Houppe, the breakaway was caught and the field back together, making way for a fresh round of attacks over the Kanarieberg.
Attempts to from Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) were short lived as the peloton stretched out toward the Kruisberg and Knokteberg.
That was when Aimé De Gendt (Cofidis) jumped on the Knokteberg, and he was quickly followed by Casper Pedersen (Soudal-QuickStep), as the pair gained 30 seconds.
Casper Pedersen of Soudal-QuickStep (left) and Aime De Gendt of Cofidis compete in the breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)
As the gap increased to nearly a minute, Ineos-Grenadiers' Josh Tarling and Ben Turner, Ganna on their wheel, put pressure on the field over the Kortekeer and into the Taaienberg with 80km to go, holding the gap within a manageable distance.
But on the cobbled slopes of the Taaienberg, Mads Pedersen took his chances and attacked first with a fast-reacting Van der Poel stuck to his back wheel. Several metres later Ganna bridged across the gap as the trio connected with Casper Pedersen and De Gendt forming a five-rider breakaway.
A powerful chase group formed behind that included Jorgenson, Tarling, Küng, Stuyven, Matteo Trentin (Tudor) and Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
The breakaway pushed their gap out to more than a minute ahead of the chasers as they reached the Stationsberg, and more than two minutes ahead of the reduced peloton that included favourites Van Aert, Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) among others.
Mathieu van der Poel at E3 Saxo Classic (Image credit: Getty: Pool)
Over the Paterberg, inside 45km to go, Mads Pedersen accellerated causing De Gendt to struggle to hang on, but the five lead riders regrouped over the top 1:20 ahead of the six chasers.
Van der Poel was the next to attack on the lower slopes of the Oude Kwaremont and Mads Pedersen tried but struggled to follow, unable to maintain the searing pace.
The Dutchman opened a sizeable solo gap over the top, having ridden his breakaway companions off his wheel, as Mads Pedersen, Ganna, Casper Pedersen and De Gendt split apart in his wake.
While Van der Poel, Mads Pedersen and Ganna took the top spots on the podium, Casper Pedersen and De Gendt were swept up by the chasers Jorgenson, Wellens, Küng and Stuyven - Casper Pedersen having enough left in the tank to win the sprint for fourth place.
Riding to third place was Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
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