Sunday April 2, Tadej Pogacar will once again try to pin the Tour of Flanders to an already well-stocked list. Last year, the Slovenian from the UAE Emirates finished at the foot of the Ronde podium, 4e. But he had signed a rather disconcerting demonstration of mastery on the Belgian cobblestone mountains.
On paper, the slim young man of 24, double winner of the Tour de France, in 2020 and 2021, and winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, in 2021, did not seem programmed to shine on this legendary race of the cycling calendar. .
Tadej Pogacar embodies this new generation of runners capable of shining on all terrains. “They are versatile, but they are not twenty like that. They are maximum five, six »tempers Johan Museeuw, triple winner of Paris-Roubaix (1996, 2000 and 2002) and the Tour of Flanders (1993, 1995 and 1998).
Four names emerge as obvious: Tadej Pogacar, therefore, the Dutchman Mathieu Van der Poel, the Belgian Wout van Aert and, to a lesser degree, the Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe. four cyclists “with potential far superior to their opponents”summarizes Cyrille Guimard, consultant for The Channel The Team. Four men as much at ease on the Flanders classics as on the Ardennes classics, despite diametrically opposed physique.
In the cycling calendar – almost – immutable from one season to another, the six Flandriennes (Bruges-La Panne, GP E3, Gand-Wevelgem, A Travers la Flandre, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix) precede the three Ardennaises (Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège). In principle, the first are cut “for strong and heavy guys” and the seconds “for light runners”, deciphered, on Eurosport, Philippe Gilbert, winner of four of the five “monuments”, the most prestigious one-day races in cycling. But in principle, only, because current phenomena undermine these received ideas.
“If we were good everywhere, why couldn’t we be anymore? »
On the Flandriennes, the featherweights Tadej Pogacar (66 kg) and Julian Alaphilippe (62 kg) thus played the leading roles even as they return ten kilograms to the average weight of the last ten winners of the Tour of Flanders (76 kg). “Pogi” was not far from winning in 2022 before messing up his sprint; “Alaf” saw his dreams of victory shattered in 2020 when he violently crashed into an organization motorcycle as he raced to the finish in the wheel of Wout van Aert and Mathieu Van der Poel, finally victorious.
You have 61.17% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.