At 273.4 kilometers with six cobble segments and 19 climbs, the men’s Tour of Flanders—the second Monument race of the season—runs from Brugge to Oudenaarde in Belgium. This year was the fastest iteration of the race ever run, with strong tailwinds (and headwinds) breaking up the peloton from the start. The race was marred by many crashes, and the racing was some of the most exciting we’ve seen all season.

How the men’s race played out

As usual, with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the mix, those were the riders to watch, but there were quite a few other contenders on the start line. Teams like Ineos-Grenadiers and Movistar made some early attacks, trying to test the peloton, but the early kilometers of the race were marked by small attacks that the peloton swallowed up. The wind also played a part, splitting the peloton and forcing top riders like Van der Poel to work at the front.

At 70 kilometers into the race, a crash took out several riders and split the newly-reformed peloton—but that wouldn’t be the only crash of the day. At 140 kilometers to go, a huge crash in the peloton took out many riders including Peter Sagan—racing his last Tour of Flanders before his upcoming retirement—and Tim Wellens. The crash was caused by a Bahrain rider who went onto the grass, then swung back onto the road into the peloton. Wellens was unfortunately forced to pull out of the race, as was Sagan. The Bahrain Victorious rider Filip Maciejuk was disqualified for causing the crash. (Sadly, another Bahrain rider caused other crash a while later, though with less catastrophic results—all bad news for another race favourite, Bahrain’s Matej Mohorič.)

You can watch the domino effect of the crash here:

pic.twitter.com/CkPzg2ZK6d

— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) April 2, 2023

Meanwhile, the crashes allowed a group of eight to continue to grow their advantage in a breakaway. Jasper De Buyst, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, Daan Hoole, Elmar Reinders, Filippo Colombo, Jonas Rutsch, Tim Merlier and Hugo Houle. The group didn’t contain riders from Van der Poel, Van Aert or Pogacar’s teams—which means there was a lot of firepower in the peloton working to close that gap, though with eight big teams including Loton Dsny, Trek Segafredo and EF up in the lead, there were also plenty of teams who had no reason to work. The leaders grew their advantage to four minutes, but by 100 kilometres to go, the gap was closing, down to two minutes.

A smaller attack group with Mads Peterson and dark horse race favorite Stephan Küng along with seven others went after the leaders, splitting from the peloton and closing the gap to under a minute with 90 kilometers to go—a minute ahead of the peloton. By 77 kilometers to go, the chase group made contact with the breakaway, creating a 19-rider strong lead group, nearly two minutes ahead of the peloton containing many of the race favorites.

Another huge crash in the peloton at 70 kilometers to go took out Mohorič as well as Binian Girmay and Aime De Gendt.

With 55 kilometers to go, attacks began to bring the big three—Van der Poel, Van Aert or Pogačar—back to the front of the race. UAE launched the attack, with Pogačar riding up the steep cobbled climb, riding Tom Pidcock off his wheel as Van Aert gritted his way up the hill, chasing hard. Pidcock and teammate Magnus Sheffield led Van Aert up the climb as Pogacar appeared to pretty much sprint away from the peloton, looking entirely unbothered by his monumental effort. As the climbs came fast and furious, he seemed comfortable attacking the narrow climbs alone.

Behind them, Van Aert and Pidcock were joined by Van der Poel, essentially creating a cyclocross superstar chase group. It wasn’t a surprise when they caught Pogačar and LaPorte, who had eased up slightly.

The lead groups hit the famed Koppenburg climb—but the real camera view was Pogačar, Van Aert and Van der Poel smashing the pedals together surging up the classic climb. Ahead of them, the lead group of 11 worked hard to maintain their lead on the three superpowers of cycling, with Neilson Powless, one of the few Americans in the race, in the mix in the lead group. The lead group continued to dwindle as the ‘big three’ powered up the climbs, picking up riders who’d been dropped from the lead group as they went.
At 28 kilometers to go, Van der Poel attacked hard and Pogačar just barely made it on his wheel as Van Aert struggled to hang on and began to fall behind as more climbs loomed ahead.

Pogačar surged again, catching and riding through Pederson, who was caught by a chasing Van der Poel. With 17 kilometers to go, Pogačar was finally in the lead, opening a 13 second gap, though Van der Poel refused to give up while Pederson tried to hang on. A chase group with many of the original attackers along with Van Aert followed 40 seconds back.

While Pogačar was utterly uncatchable, Van der Poel never gave up the chase, stretching to 30 second behind Pogačar. Behind him, the large chase group with Van Aert, Pederson, Kasper Asgreen, Neilson Poless, Kung, Matteo Jorgensen and Fred Wright were a minute back, all in contention for the final spot on the podium.

It was no surprise when Pogačar sailed in for the win—in the fastest race time ever recorded—with Van der Poel smoothly coming in for second place. The real sprint came under a minute later, led out by Pederson, with Van Aert right on his wheel. The two finished in a photo finish, with Pederson just inching out Van Aert for third place.

“I could retire after today and be proud of my career, ” Pogačar said after the race. But thankfully, the young rider has no intention of retiring anytime soon.

Tour of Flanders Results – Men’s Top 10

1. Tadej Pogačar (Team UAE Emirates)
2. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
3. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafedo)
4. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma)
5. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost
6. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ)
7. Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick-Step)
8. Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious)
9. Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar)
10. Matteo Trentin (Team UAE Emirates)

Stay tuned for the women’s recap coming soon!