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Follow us on GoogleAfter the E3 Saxo Classic, most of the attention quite naturally went to winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and the quartet that spent the finale trying to bring him back, but never managed to get him on his knees. It was easy to forget, however, that the sizeable peloton behind them crossed the line in Harelbeke only 24 seconds after Van der Poel.
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From that group, Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Per Strand Hagenes (Visma | Lease a Bike) bridged across to Stan Dewulf (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), the last survivor from the early break, but in the end they still fell just short of Van der Poel. Even so, the presence — or absence — of the latter two may well have proved decisive.
That was because the first two riders from the peloton, who eventually finished sixth and seventh, rode for those same teams. Tobias Lund Andresen and Christophe Laporte crossed the line in Harelbeke with mixed feelings. “Zero regrets,” said the Dane. “I’m already happy that I made it to the finish in the peloton and I’m really happy for Stan, who fully deserved that fourth place.”
Laporte felt much the same after he and Jasper Stuyven came up just short on the Taaienberg when trying to follow Van der Poel and Tim van Dijke (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe). “Christophe maybe wasn’t quite as good as we had hoped. He still finishes seventh, but it wasn’t super. One day is not the next,” sports director Arthur van Dongen told IDL Procycling.
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Christophe Laporte did not have a top day.
Red Bull and Lidl-Trek leave Harelbeke with top tens
Gianni Vermeersch eventually finished eighth for the team of Van Dijke, leaving the German squad moderately satisfied. The situation — with Tim van Dijke out front and brother Mick, Vermeersch, Laurence Pithie and Jan Tratnik all in the chasing group behind — had looked more promising than the final result in Harelbeke suggested.
“I felt like one of the strongest riders in the race, and when you can’t turn that into a result, it just sucks,” Van Dijke said. “I think I was among the better riders, so I’m frustrated with my choices, but I’ve also learned a lot from them. I still tried to make the best of it, but as a group we now need to cash in on these good legs in the coming days and weeks.”
Mads Pedersen, who finished ninth, and his Lidl-Trek teammates did not look quite as dominant en masse as in recent seasons, but the Dane still came away from his first cobbled test of the spring with a positive feeling. “It was okay, but it was a hard day. Racing here is different from Sanremo and it wasn’t our day, but there are more races to come.”
The Lidl-Trek leader had only Mathias Vacek with him in the finale and therefore could do little in the chase. “I felt anything was still possible, but the responsibility wasn’t on us because we only had two riders there. Other teams had many more riders in that group, but then you also get different tactics. Red Bull didn’t immediately start pulling either; they chose to attack first.”
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“I was completely spent, just like the rest”
In the final roughly fifteen kilometres, it was indeed Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe and Groupama-FDJ that did most of the work behind, but it still proved just not enough to bring back the five riders up the road. “We had five riders in the main peloton at the end, so we had to take responsibility and try to go for a result in the sprint, especially with Thibaud,” said Romain Grégoire on the Groupama-FDJ website.
“We tried to pull, and I think we could have come back if a few more teams had joined forces. We took our responsibilities. It didn’t necessarily work out in the sprint, but I think we did what we had to do.”
For Grégoire, it was his first WorldTour race on the cobbles. “It was as hard as I expected. I wasn’t at my best on the climbs, so I suffered a bit,” said the Frenchman, who had already finished fourth at Strade Bianche earlier this spring.
Former teammates Jasper Stuyven and Dylan van Baarle represented Soudal Quick-Step in the chasing group and shared the same view. “There was some cooperation but different teams had riders in front so that wasn’t helping us,” said Stuyven, who eventually finished fifteenth.
That was thanks in part to Tibor Del Grosso, who helped disrupt the chase for Van der Poel. “I felt good today, but in the final kilometers I was empty, like the rest of the guys in that large chasing group. No result today, but a good feeling for the upcoming races,” Stuyven concluded, neatly summing up just how hard the race had been from Van der Poel all the way down to last finisher Mathias Norsgaard.
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