Voices from the E3 peloton after finishing just 24 seconds behind Mathieu van der Poel

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.

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.”

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.