Hardly seen, yet still nearly in the top 10 at the Tour of Flanders: how did they still pull that off?

Aimé De Gendt was the first of the riders who had missed the boat to reach the finish, taking 12th place at 5:34 from winner Tadej Pogačar. Yet that was only ten seconds behind riders such as Christophe Laporte, Gianni Vermeersch and Tim van Dijke, all of whom we did still see on screen after the Molenberg.

That first chasing group from the peloton featured De Gendt and his Pinarello Q36.5 teammate Brent Van Moer, but also Oliver Naesen, Daan Hoole, Laurence Pithie, Valentin Madouas, Michael Valgren and Per Strand Hagenes.

How did they get that far back into contention? “We rode every climb as hard as possible and then waited to see what was left,” Hoole told IDLProCycling.com.

“We even came back past Stan Dewulf, and in the end I think Oliver finished twelfth.” In reality, Naesen was credited with thirteenth, but the point remained: this group had come from a long way back.

“I had to change bikes just before the Wolvenberg,” Hoole explained. “My chain had come off and it had folded in on itself. Cees Bol dragged me back to the front on the section in between, but that was a really bad moment for it to happen.” The Dutchman therefore missed the decisive acceleration entirely.

“The group racing for sixth place was just ahead of us, but only Daan and I were working,” Naesen added. “All the others had a teammate up the road, so they were looking at us to do the chasing. I told them we could still catch a lot of riders, but well...”

“For me it’s mainly a shame about that bad luck at such a terrible moment, because otherwise it was a good race,” Hoole said. “I was one of the better riders, but my race was already over.” Still, with legs like that, he can head to Paris-Roubaix with confidence.

So at Pinarello-Q36.5 , De Gendt once again showed that his form is in a very good place. “It was a really hard day,” he said. “It’s a pity we missed the split on the Molenberg, we were just a bit too far at that moment. After that, we focused on saving what was possible. Of course, missing the top 10 is disappointing, but finishing 12th in a race like this is still a solid result. The conditions, with wind, rain and everything, made it a real Flemish classic. We showed we were good, even if not quite in the mix for the top positions today.”

Van Moer, who finished nineteenth, felt much the same. “I think we rode a very good race as a team. The first goal was to have someone in the early breakaway and with Frison we did that perfectly. From there, the focus was on positioning for the key moments. We maybe missed a bit on the Molenberg, but both Aimé and I kept fighting all the way. It was a really tough race, with groups coming back and the pace always high. In the end, a double top 20 in a Monument like this is not a bad result and shows the strength of the team effort!”

Madouas was part of that same chasing group. “We had to keep going and never give up if we wanted the result we were aiming for: a top-10 finish,” he said. “We did not finish that far behind and physically we were in the race, but the Molenberg cost us dearly. Unfortunately, none of the major favourites were caught out, which does not happen often, and the gap immediately became big.”