Not Van der Poel, but Pogačar is the big winner of E3, says Zonneveld: ‘He’ll take confidence from it’

With almost 70 kilometres to go, Tim van Dijke accelerated, after which Van der Poel pressed on himself and rode solo across to the leaders. It was very early in the race. “He knew it was happening in the same places as last year, and the year before,” Zonneveld said in the In De Waaier podcast. “The race often blows apart on the Taaienberg, and this year was no different.”

Van der Poel joined the leaders after a chase, only to release them on the Paterberg. At that point it was still about 50 kilometers of cycling. After the final climbs, however, it became mostly pounding on the big plate over wide, flat roads. And that's where the chasers suddenly got very close.

Van der Poel bridged up to the front after his chase and then dropped the others on the Paterberg. At that point, there were still around 50 kilometres left to race. After the final climbs, though, it became a matter of grinding away on the big ring over wide, flat roads. That was when the chasers suddenly started to come back very quickly.

According to the Dutch analyst, Van der Poel’s attack may have been just a little too much. “I don’t know whether it was overconfidence, whether it was an idea to squeeze in some extra training, or whether he thought, ‘Pogačar isn’t here anyway, so it’ll be fine.’ But purely in terms of winning the race, it wasn’t the best option to go alone with 60 kilometres to go.”

On the flat, Van der Poel lost a lot of time. “That’s not where he is at his absolute best. You can now see the differences between the aliens: I don’t think this would have happened to Pogačar, and it wouldn’t have happened to Evenepoel either. Unless there was still a huge climb to come. You can see that he is vulnerable when he goes from too far out, and there are riders behind him riding through and off.”

In the end, the chasers remained just behind the lone leader because of hesitation and disruption in the group, and Van der Poel crossed the line three seconds clear, completely exhausted. A perfect dress rehearsal for the Tour of Flanders, or maybe not? “Does he take a morale boost from this, or not?” Zonneveld wondered. “Is it actually bad for his confidence that he was basically getting reeled in?”

In Flanders’ Finest, Van der Poel will have to take on Tadej Pogačar, who also dropped the Dutchman in Milan-San Remo. “I think Pogačar was sitting in front of his television thinking, ‘If this is it, I’m riding away on the first or second passage of the Kwaremont.’ He’ll take confidence from this. He sees: ‘If I make it a long, hard race, this guy can be cracked.’”