Mathieu van der Poel won his first E3 Saxo Classic on Friday with an incredible display of power. The Dutch rider started his solo 43 kilometers from the finish line and, after celebrating victory extensively, crossed the line in Harelbeke with a minute and a half lead over the number two.
The ‘first loser’ was not Van der Poel’s favorite colleague, Wout van Aert, but his friend and compatriot Jasper Stuyven. Van Aert, who won the last two editions of E3, is in third place this time.
A duel between the world champion and cycling leader Visma Lease, who has been training at altitude for three weeks, was expected in advance. But Van Aert’s chances were lost when something went wrong for him on a steep boulder climb in the Paterberg. There Van der Poel did what he had apparently planned beforehand: he launched a very powerful attack to cause selection.
Behind the rainbow jersey, Van Aert saw what was happening and wanted to join in, but had to jump from a ditch at the side of the road onto rocks to pass the slower car in front of him. That’s where the error occurred for the Belgian player. His rear wheel slipped, he fell and saw Van der Poel disappear. No one can keep up with him.
When Van Aert was back on his bike and working again, he was half a minute behind Van der Poel. He alone managed to come within 10 seconds of his eternal rival. But that’s all. Van der Poel started, disappeared from sight, the rain started to fall and Van Aert’s deficit increased to two minutes when Stuyven overtook him.
“E3 wasn’t on my list yet, so I’m very happy,” Van der Poel said soon after. ‘I don’t know what happened at Paterberg, I only heard they crashed there. From Pater there is still a long way to go to the finish line. I thought Wout would come back, but I kept using the watts I could use.’
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