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Follow us on GoogleVisma | Lease a Bike had to do without Wout van Aert and Matthew Brennan in Friday’s E3 Saxo Classic, but still saw a new spring card emerge in the shape of Per Strand Hagenes. Speaking afterwards to IDL Procycling, sports director Arthur van Dongen reflected on the state of his Classics squad based on what the team has already shown and what still lies ahead.
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It starts with Hagenes. The Norwegian has long been regarded as one of the great talents of his generation. He became junior world champion in Leuven in 2021, won the Course de la Paix, and as a trainee with the team then known as Jumbo-Visma in 2023, he already picked up three professional wins: the Drenthe Tour, a hard stage in the Four Days of Dunkirk and the Sparkassen Münsterland Giro.
In 2024 and 2025, he showed flashes of his class, but also had to deal with bad luck through crashes and health issues. Van Dongen was pleased to see it all come together now, at the age of just 22, in a demanding WorldTour Classic. “I think this is Per Strand Hagenes’ breakthrough at the very highest level.”
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Van Dongen proud of his riders
“In his age group, he was obviously already one of the better riders, and now you can see that riders like him and Alec Segaert are starting to rise to the surface,” said the experienced sports director, who cares deeply about the younger talent in his squad. “At a time when everyone seems to think it all has to happen at 19, riders like him thankfully prove the opposite.”
“Per had already been very strong in other races and had done a very good job for the team, but in terms of result this is extremely impressive in a hard WorldTour race like E3 Harelbeke,” he continued. “When you cross the line in second, your first thought is: damn. Especially when you were so close to bringing Mathieu back. But if you are realistic, and we are, then we simply have to be very satisfied with second and seventh place.”
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Laporte did not have a top day — what about Brennan?
Second and seventh place, with Laporte taking seventh, and all that without Van Aert or Brennan at the start. “Timo Kielich rode well in the break, although Christophe perhaps was not quite as good as we had hoped. He still finished seventh, but it was not super. One day is not the next.”
The Frenchman had some issues after Opening Weekend and was left out of Le Samyn as a precaution, but he has not yet found his very best legs. Brennan, meanwhile, fell ill in Italy ahead of Milan-San Remo. As for Sunday’s In Flanders Fields, Van Dongen is not expecting miracles from the Briton just yet.
“Wout and Matthew are coming back in as well, so we are moving in the right direction,” Van Dongen explained. “Matthew feels good and arrived in Belgium on Friday evening. I have spoken to him and he will start on Sunday, but he still needs race rhythm. Hopefully he will be on fire again by Wednesday,” the sports director said, looking more towards Dwars door Vlaanderen. Hagenes, incidentally, will not be racing on Sunday.
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Van Dongen: “What Van der Poel is doing is exceptional”
And what was Friday’s finale worth against Mathieu van der Poel, who went on to win the E3 Saxo Classic? Van Dongen was firm in his assessment. “This was not Van der Poel showing weakness. I’ve already heard that suggestion, but it really was not that. It was down to the race situation and the course, with such a long stretch back to Harelbeke on wide roads and into a headwind. You cannot compare that with the Tour of Flanders.”
“Mathieu went very early, and behind him there were still a lot of strong riders together, so then you know it can become difficult on your own. What Van der Poel is doing is exceptional and extremely good,” said the Visma | Lease a Bike sports director. “The people who don’t rate that properly have never raced themselves.”
Tom van der Salm (27) comes from the charming town of Zeilberg (Deurne) in the Netherlands and has been working as editor-in-chief & journalist at IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, In de Leiderstrui, since 2019. He travels with the peloton from the Tour de France to the AlUla Tour and from the World Championships in Rwanda or Canada to the Zilvermeercross in Mol. In his spare time he enjoys playing football, mountain biking, running, walking with his Labrador/Stabyhoun, investing, holidays, (specialty) beers, reading, cooking and watching sports & documentaries!
Contact: [email protected]
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Latest Comments
- Eight riders told to go for stages, and nobody gets one—hard to know what the plan was there. It’ll be interesting to see whether they pick a clear leader next time.bikebuffj10-11-2026
- Was Bernal’s 20th place really their best GC result? I thought he might have finished higher. Either way, it sounds like a rough Tour for the whole team.gearguru3310-11-2026
- Five days in breaks with no stage win is a painful stat. The team had chances, but they need to turn those opportunities into results.julien10-11-2026
- The Onley Vuelta example makes sense: a team with someone to rally around often looks much more cohesive. Hopefully INEOS can build on that rather than expecting a quick return to the Sky years.cadencekingm10-11-2026
- Thomas is right about the ambiguity. Eight riders all chasing stages can end up pulling in different directions, even if nobody’s deliberately working against anyone. They need a clearer plan once the GC leaders are out.robert6510-11-2026
- What a mess. The report makes it sound as though nobody properly explained the decision, and that’s hard to defend.jennifer1910-11-2026
- I’m still learning the rules: does moving left in a sprint automatically bring a penalty, or does it depend on whether the other rider is blocked? It sounds like Brand wasn’t impeded here.patriciaw10-11-2026
- A final decision still needs a proper explanation. If the federation’s complaint goes nowhere, I hope the officials at least review how they handled the riders afterwards.michael5410-11-2026
- Fair play to Lucinda for saying Marie had won fair and square. That kind of sportsmanship matters, especially after such a controversial decision.raceready710-11-2026
- Schreiber beat Brand on the road, so the jury needed to explain clearly why that slight deviation warranted relegation. Being cut off before she could give her account sounds appalling.lindae10-11-2026