“He came across and I saw his face…”; teammate Planckaert on Van der Poel’s decisive moment

On the Taaienberg, Van der Poel followed an attack by Tim van Dijke of Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe, and the pair bridged across on the section leading toward the Boigneberg to a group that had gone clear earlier. Just as Van Dijke may have thought he had a moment to breathe, Van der Poel lifted the pace once more.

“It was still really far from the finish, so I was surprised that he went from that far out already. But you know what he’s like,” Van Dijke said afterwards. “I decided to commit fully with him and we quickly opened a gap, but I paid for that later. He can make that acceleration several times in a row, and I can’t.”

Van der Poel also rode straight past teammate Planckaert, who was sitting in that front group. “I had to be there, and I managed that,” Planckaert explained. “From the moment I knew Mathieu was coming, I knew I had work to do. But one kilometre later he had already gone clear on his own, and my job there was basically done.”

Van der Poel himself later explained that early move as well. “When I came across to that group, I had the feeling no one was going to work with me there, so I decided to attack immediately. I hoped one or two riders would come with me, but I was alone, and once that happened there was no way back.”

“I heard he was ten seconds behind us, and then I thought: this is going to be a long day at work,” said Planckaert, taking IDL through the precise moment Van der Poel launched his decisive attack. “But on that first little climb, the Boigneberg, he was already gone again. He came across and I saw his face — that’s when I knew what time it was.”

“We were rolling through, and then he came to the front and kicked. I was third wheel, behind Edward Theuns, and I felt that if he kept riding like that to the top, it was over. All I saw there was the rear wheel of the rider in front of me. I came through once or twice, but that was it.”

From there, Planckaert and Del Grosso had to help neutralise the chase behind their team leader, who later dropped the last survivors of the early break on the Paterberg. “Not everything went perfectly, but it all fell into place in the end,” Planckaert said. “It was still a long way to go, but that deep into the finale there also aren’t many riders left who can still work for a leader. I think it was a good move. Big balls, but it worked.” Planckaert still managed to finish 20th.

Del Grosso crossed the line in 17th, but from the peloton he could see just how close it still became. “We tried to protect Mathieu’s attack, and we got some time gaps through, but on those long straight sections we could also see it ourselves a little bit,” he said. “They were getting closer and closer, but in the end he still pulled it off.”

“I had to be ready in case it all came back together, but the best was already gone from my legs too. Still, I had a really nice day,” Del Grosso concluded, echoing Van der Poel’s own feeling after the finish. Van der Poel later admitted he was empty in the closing kilometres and that it would have been “really awful” to be caught after such a long attack. In the end, he held on after a solo effort of 63 kilometres.