He did, however, win Flèche Wallonne in 1950 and he was demoted to second at the 1948 Omloop for an illegal wheel change. For most of the 20th century, classics were simply classics (or occasionally semi-classics), their prestige (and prize money) rising and falling from decade to decade.įausto Coppi, for instance, is third on the all-time list of Monument winners, with nine, but he never raced the Tour of Flanders or Liège-Bastogne-Liège. UCI president Hein Verbruggen, for instance, told Le Monde in the Spring of 1989 that the new World Cup would safeguard “the five or six” Monuments of cycling. It’s an entertaining parlour game, of course, but it’s a debate that feels almost moot.įor one thing, the Monument term is a recent invention.
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Tadej Pogačar en route to victory in the 2023 Tour of Flanders (Image credit: Getty)Įven before Tadej Pogačar crossed the line in Oudenaarde on Sunday, talk had turned to whether – or perhaps even when – the Slovenian would complete a full set of five Monuments. I don't dare to say 'I want to win Paris-Roubaix". "I dream of winning Paris-Roubaix, but it's so hard to target this race because there's so much luck involved. Kopecky heads into Paris-Roubaix as the favourite, but she is aware that luck, rather than numbers, could play a bigger factor in the Hell of the North next weekend. SD Worx, once again, played their number to perfection to go 1-2, with Vollering securing second place at the Tour of Flanders. It all bodes well for her upcoming ambitions at Paris-Roubaix. The most iconic race of the season on Belgian soil, local fans were out to watch the race, first treated to a riveting showdown in the men's race won by Tadej Pogačar, which was then followed up by Kopecky's dominant performance as the only Belgium rider to stand on the podium at this year's Tour of Flanders.Īnd while Grace Verbeke was the first Belgian rider to win the women's Tour of Flanders in 2010, Kopecky's victory last year also had a historical factor as she was one of the few riders to have won while wearing the colours of the Belgian National Champion, a short list that also includes Philippe Gilbert in 2017 and Stijn Devolder in 2008.Ī remarkable performance this year saw Kopecky ride away from the decisive breakaway, distancing her last rival, Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ), on the Oude Kwaremont and soloing to the win by a 36-second margin. Kopecky is on a role during her spring campaign delivering two wins for SD Worx at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Nokere Koerse while also finishing second behind teammate Demi Vollering at Strade Bianche after a close two-up sprint - all in a run-up to her targeted cobbled classics Tour of Flanders and then into Paris-Roubaix on April 8. The big pre-race question was - can anyone beat Lotte Kopecky at the Tour of Flanders? And the answer was a resounding no. Lotte Kopecky wins solo at Tour of Flanders 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images) Such are the pitfalls of racing in the Pogačar era. The victories of 20 are the emotional highs, of course, but from a purely athletic standpoint, Sunday’s second-place finish was almost certainly his best Tour of Flanders performance – and probably one of the best displays of his entire career.
In his five Tour of Flanders appearances to date, Van der Poel’s sequence of results now reads 4th, 1st, 2nd, 1st, and 2nd. Without Pogačar, this could have been a Van der Poel exhibition for the ages, and he would have equalled the record for Ronde victories in the process, all at just 28 years of age. His cutting acceleration on the Kruisberg condemned Van Aert and changed the tenor of this race, and even though he couldn’t hold Pogacar on the Kwaremont, he still reached Oudenaarde almost a minute clear of an elite group of chasers. He got caught out in an early split, but he scarcely put a foot wrong thereafter. It damns Van der Poel with faint praise to say he was simply the best of the rest here. On Sunday, he simply had the misfortune to be forced to play Salieri to Pogačar’s Mozart. Pogačar’s startling solo victory eclipsed everything else on Sunday, but the quality of Van der Poel’s showing should not be overlooked.
Van der Poel may, however, rue the day that Tadej Pogačar developed a taste for the cobbles and hills of the Flemish Ardennes. Like Messi and Ronaldo or Magic and Bird, the eternal rivalry has driven each man to heights he would likely never have reached alone. It’s pointless to wonder how much more Mathieu van der Poel might already have won had his career not overlapped with Wout van Aert. Mathieu van der Poel during the 2023 Tour of Flanders (Image credit: Getty)
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