Did Van der Poel almost cramp in Tour of Flanders finale? Roodhooft explains

TV footage showed Van der Poel asking his sporting director for a remedy. "Do you have something against cramps?" he asked the car.

TV images appeared to capture Van der Poel asking for something to help against cramps. Afterwards, Roodhooft was asked what had been said during that short exchange. “Not much, actually. It only lasted a very short time,” he told Sporza. “Was it about cramps? Ah, so you already know that. Mathieu thought he might get cramps, but I still haven’t spoken to him.”

Van der Poel himself later downplayed the idea that cramp had truly set in. “Not really. Everyone was on the limit, and so was I — that was more the case,” he said after his battle with Pogačar. “I tried everything I could.”

Roodhooft also pointed to the decisive nature of the final Oude Kwaremont, where Pogačar made the difference for the third time in his career at the Tour of Flanders. “That Kwaremont is decisive because it is the longest climb in the race. On the other climbs, things were going particularly quickly,” he said.

Despite missing out on victory, there was still plenty of satisfaction inside the Alpecin-Premier Tech camp. “We can go to Roubaix with confidence, which is still a very good opportunity. Mathieu finished second today after a fantastic race, and we must not forget that,” said the team boss, summing up the proud mood after Van der Poel’s runner-up finish behind Pogačar in Oudenaarde.