Zonneveld loved Van Aert’s gesture to Van der Poel: “A little sign of: we’re doing this together”

The sight of the two of them sharing the lead again brought back a wave of nostalgia, and Zonneveld admitted as much on the In De Waaier podcast. “For a moment, it really felt like it was 2020, 2021 or 2023 again — whatever year you want to pick — but suddenly we were back there. Proper old-school Wout against Mathieu. The way they were already racing each other as juniors, under-23s and even before that.”

According to the Dutch analyst, that is exactly what the sport has been missing in recent years. Instead, the biggest Classics storyline had increasingly become Van der Poel against that other phenomenon: Tadej Pogačar. In In Flanders Fields, though, that familiar script was briefly put on hold.

The moment Zonneveld appreciated most was Van Aert tapping Van der Poel on the leg before the pair committed fully to their move. For him, that one small action captured the essence of their rivalry. “It really was that moment when Wout van Aert gave Mathieu van der Poel a little tap on the leg, as if to say: come on, shall we go? That was the highlight for me. Just that little touch, that little moment — mate, I’ve missed you, shall we go and play outside again?”

Zonneveld immediately corrected himself on one point. “They’re not friends,” he said. “But they are definitely not enemies either.” And that, in his view, is also what has always made their rivalry so compelling. For the past few years, the duel had faded somewhat. On Sunday, watching on television, it almost felt nostalgic again.

There are several reasons why that rivalry lost some of its balance. Zonneveld believes Van der Poel has continued to improve, while Van Aert has been forced to stand still at times because of crashes and setbacks. Yet what made their battles so special for so long was that neither man ever accepted being the inferior rider. “For years, the remarkable thing about that duel was that both riders refused to be the one underneath. It was never one of the two who was structurally the weaker of the two. It stayed in balance for a surprisingly long time.”

Van Aert has had to deal with several heavy crashes in recent seasons, while Van der Poel kept taking steps forward. In Zonneveld’s eyes, that is why the rivalry faded into the background. “Since then, the duel hasn’t really been there anymore. The last time they rode together toward the finish in a major Classic was with Pogačar in the E3 in 2023. Van Aert won that day. The last time there was a true two-up sprint between them in a major Classic was in 2020. Secretly, that is a very long time ago.”

That long absence was never how it was supposed to go, Zonneveld argued. Back when the two were trading blows year after year, it felt as though Flemish Classics and Paris-Roubaix would be defined by their battle for many years to come. “When you watched those two racing each other back then, you thought: we’re going to get the most beautiful rivalry in Flanders and Roubaix for years and years and years. Sadly, we still didn’t quite get that today. In that sense, it was a small anticlimax.”

Still, that tap from Van Aert to Van der Poel lingered with him. Zonneveld kept coming back to it because, to him, it said everything. “This was a little sign of: shall we do this? Really a little sign of: we’re doing this together.” It has not always looked like that between them, but on Sunday the two seasoned rivals did set off together once more. And for a few kilometres at least, cycling had one of its most iconic match-ups back again.