Jordi Meeus confronts Christophe Laporte after Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe’s In Flanders Fields plan unravels

At the finish, IDL was able to catch up with Mick van Dijke, who explained the team’s intended plan. “The idea was to sprint with Jordi, so for us it was mainly about following the moves and not contributing to the chase ourselves.”

“Basically, everyone had to stay in their box, although Tim was allowed to go if the really big names moved,” Van Dijke continued. “It was a very hard day anyway, especially with the echelons early on. After De Moeren, I already had to do a big turn on the front.”

“I felt super good, but we had our tactics,” Van Dijke said. “Heading into the second time up the Kemmelberg, I had to position the guys, and then you know you’re not going to make it over with them anymore.”

After that, it was up to brother Tim, Gianni Vermeersch and Laurence Pithie to help close the gap to Van der Poel and Van Aert, alongside the riders from Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. While the French team were rewarded with second place for Tobias Lund Andresen, Meeus had to settle for 36th. The late race itself ended with Jasper Philipsen taking victory after Van der Poel and Van Aert were reeled in just before the line.

“I heard over the radio that Jordi hadn’t been able to sprint, so that was really frustrating,” Van Dijke said at the finish. Meeus was pushed toward the barriers in a movement in the bunch and crossed the line slamming his hands on the bars, after which he made his way over to Christophe Laporte to ask what had happened.

The Frenchman from Visma | Lease a Bike had made contact with Meeus, whose chain then came off, but Laporte did not appear to believe there had been any intent. “Race incident,” was effectively his explanation to his rival. “I didn’t expect we would come back, but Decathlon and BORA closed it with six riders, so in the end it still became a sprint,” he said afterwards via CyclingProNet.